Green Bank Telescope Measurement of the Systemic Velocity of the Double Pulsar Binary J0737-3039 and Implications for Its Formation
Abstract
We report on the measurement at 820 and 1400 MHz of the orbital modulation of the diffractive scintillation timescale from pulsar A in the double-pulsar system J0737-3039 using the Green Bank Telescope. With fits to this modulation, we determine the systemic velocity in the plane of the sky to be VISS~=140.9+/-6.2 km s-1. The parallel and perpendicular components of this velocity with respect to the line of nodes of the pulsar's orbit are Vplane~=96.0+/-3.7 km s-1 and Vperp~=103.1+/-7.7 km s-1, respectively. The large Vperp implies that pulsar B was born with a kick speed of >~100 km s-1. Future Very Long Baseline Array determinations of the angular proper motion in conjunction with improved VISS measurements should provide a precise distance to the system. Using high-precision timing data and the VISS model, we estimate a best-fit orbital inclination of i=88.7d+/-0.9d.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- July 2004
- DOI:
- 10.1086/422911
- arXiv:
- arXiv:astro-ph/0404149
- Bibcode:
- 2004ApJ...609L..71R
- Keywords:
-
- Stars: Binaries: General;
- ISM: General;
- Stars: Pulsars: General;
- Stars: Pulsars: Individual: Alphanumeric: PSR J0737-3039A;
- Stars: Pulsars: Individual: Alphanumeric: PSR J0737-3039B;
- Stars: Kinematics;
- Astrophysics
- E-Print:
- 5 pages, 3 figures. To be submitted to ApJ Letters. A version with higher resolution figures is available upon request from S. Ransom