An ultraluminous nascent millisecond pulsar.
Abstract
If the ultraluminous source (ULX) M82 X-2 sustains its measured spin-up value of dot{ν }= 10^{-10} s^{-2}, it will become a millisecond pulsar in less than 105 yr. The observed (isotropic) luminosity of 1040 erg s-1 also supports the notion that the neutron star will spin up to a millisecond period upon accreting about 0.1 M⊙ - the reported hard X-ray luminosity of this ULX, together with the spin-up value, implies torques consistent with the accretion disc extending down to the vicinity of the stellar surface, as expected for low values of the stellar dipole magnetic field (B ≲ 109 G). This suggests a new channel of millisecond pulsar formation - in high-mass X-ray binaries - and may have implications for studies of gravitational waves, and possibly for the formation of low-mass black holes through accretion-induced collapse.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- March 2015
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnrasl/slu200
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1411.1005
- Bibcode:
- 2015MNRAS.448L..43K
- Keywords:
-
- accretion: accretion discs;
- gravitational waves;
- magnetic fields;
- stars: black holes;
- stars: neutron;
- pulsars: individual: NuSTAR J095551+6940.8;
- Astrophysics - Solar and Stellar Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- proof-read version, <