2007/01/22 by Hsiu-Hui Huang, W. Becker, Huang, Hsiu-Hui +1
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Superconducting Materials and Applications
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0701611
openalex publication_date 2007/01/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We report on XMM-Newton observations of the "Black Widow pulsar", PSR B1957+20. The pulsar's X-ray emission is non-thermal and best modeled with a single powerlaw spectrum of photon index 2.03(+0.51/-0.36). No coherent X-ray pulsations at the pulsar's spin-period could be detected, though a strong binary-phase dependence of the X-ray flux is observed for the first time. The data suggest that the majority of the pulsar's X-radiation is emitted from a small part of the binary orbit only. We identified this part as being near to where the radio eclipse takes place. This could mean that the X-rays from PSR B1957+20 are mostly due to intra-shock emission which is strongest when the pulsar wind interacts with the ablated material from the companion star.