Optical Identification of the Millisecond Pulsar J0621+2514
Abstract
Using the SDSS and Pan-STARRS1 survey data, we found a likely companion of the recently discovered binary γ-ray radio-loud millisecond pulsar J0621+2514. Its visual brightness is about 22 mag. The broadband magnitudes and colours suggest that this is a white dwarf. Comparing the data with various white dwarfs evolutionary tracks, we found that it likely belongs to a class of He-core white dwarfs with a temperature of about 10 000 K and a mass of ≲ 0.5 M⊙. For a thin hydrogen envelope of the white dwarf, its cooling age is ≲ 0.5 Gyr which is smaller than the pulsar characteristic age of 1.8 Gyr. This may indicate that the pulsar age is overestimated. Otherwise, this may be explained by the presence of a thick hydrogen envelope or a low metallicity of the white dwarf progenitor.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- Pub Date:
- July 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1017/pasa.2018.21
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1805.03918
- Bibcode:
- 2018PASA...35...28K
- Keywords:
-
- binaries: close;
- pulsars: individual: PSR J0621+2514;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PASA