Realistic Modeling of the Pulse Profile of PSR J0737-3039A
Abstract
The Double Pulsar, PSR J0737-3039A/B, is a unique system in which both neutron stars have been detected as radio pulsars. As shown in Ferdman et al., there is no evidence for pulse profile evolution of the A pulsar, and the geometry of the pulsar was fit well with a double-pole circular radio beam model. Assuming a more realistic polar cap model with a vacuum retarded dipole magnetosphere configuration including special relativistic effects, we create synthesized pulse profiles for A given the best-fit geometry from the simple circular beam model. By fitting synthesized pulse profiles to those observed from pulsar A, we constrain the geometry of the radio beam, namely the half-opening angle and the emission altitude, to be ~30° and ~10 neutron star radii, respectively. Combining the observational constraints of PSR J0737-3039A/B, we are able to construct the full three-dimensional orbital geometry of the Double Pulsar. The relative angle between the spin axes of the two pulsars (ΔS) is estimated to be ~(138° ± 5°) at the current epoch and will likely remain constant until tidal interactions become important in ~85 Myr, at merger.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- May 2014
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0004-637X/787/1/51
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1404.1458
- Bibcode:
- 2014ApJ...787...51P
- Keywords:
-
- binaries: general;
- pulsars: general;
- stars: neutron;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 20 pages, 5 figures, Accepted by ApJ on 1 April 2014