2008/04/22 by G. Cocozza, F. R. Ferraro, Andrea Possenti +8 · 2 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Binary pulsar #Binary star #Galaxy #Globular cluster #Light curve #Luminosity #Millisecond pulsar #Orbital period #Physics #Pulsar #Pulsar planet #RADIUS #Roche lobe #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #X-ray pulsar #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/589557
11 pages, 3 figures, ApJL accepted
arxiv created 2008/04/22 · openalex publication_date 2008/05/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We report on the optical identification of the companion to the eclipsing millisecond pulsar PSR J1701–3006B in the globular cluster NGC 6266. A relatively bright star with an anomalous red color and an optical variability (~0.2 mag) that nicely correlates with the orbital period of the pulsar (~0.144 days) has been found nearly coincident with the pulsar nominal position. This star is also found to lie within the error box position of an X-ray source detected by Chandra observations, thus supporting the hypothesis that some interaction is occurring between the pulsar wind and the gas streaming off the companion. Although the shape of the optical light curve is suggestive of a tidally deformed star which has nearly completely filled its Roche lobe, the luminosity (~1.9 L ☉ ) and the surface temperature (~6000 K) of the star, deduced from the observed magnitude and colors, would imply a stellar radius significantly larger than the Roche lobe radius. Possible explanations for this apparent inconsistency are discussed.