2005/02/24 by A. R. King, M. E. Beer, D. J. Rolfe +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Cold Atom Physics and Bose-Einstein Condensates #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08877.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 358 (2005) 1501-1504 · MNRAS accepted
arxiv created 2005/02/24 · openalex publication_date 2005/04/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We consider the population of black widow pulsars (BWPs). The large majority of these are members of globular clusters. For minimum companion masses ≲0.1 M⊙, adiabatic evolution and consequent mass loss under gravitational radiation appear to provide a coherent explanation of all observable properties. We suggest that the group of BWPs with minimum companion masses ≳0.1 M⊙ are systems relaxing to equilibrium after a relatively recent capture event. We point out that all binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs) with orbital periods P≲ 10 h are BWPs (our line of sight allows us to see the eclipses in 10 out of 16 cases). This implies that recycled MSPs emit either in a wide fan beam or a pencil beam close to the spin plane. Simple evolutionary ideas favour a fan beam.