2006/01/01 by Frederick K. Lamb
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Millisecond #Millisecond pulsar #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsar #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Rotation (mathematics) #Spin (aerodynamics) #X-ray pulsar #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2006.08.003
13 pages, 1 figure, to appear in Spectra and Timing of Compact X-ray Binaries, ed. P. Ghosh, & E.P.J. van den Heuvel, Advances in Space Research (Elsevier Science) [doi:10.1016/j.asr.2006.08.003], in press (2006)
openalex publication_date 2006/01/01 · arxiv created 2006/11/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Observations using the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer have discovered dozens of accreting neutron stars with millisecond spin periods in low-mass binary star systems. Eighteen are millisecond X-ray pulsars powered by accretion or nuclear burning or both. These stars have magnetic fields strong enough for them to become millisecond rotation-powered (radio) pulsars when accretion ceases. Few, if any, accretion- or rotation-powered pulsars have spin rates higher than 750 Hz. There is strong evidence that the spin-up of some accreting neutron stars is limited by magnetic spin equilibrium whereas the spin-up of others is halted when accretion ends. Further study will show whether the spin rates of some accretion- or rotation-powered pulsars are or were limited by emission of gravitational radiation.