1. Surrounded by spiders! New black widows and redbacks in the Galactic field
- Author
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Mallory S. E. Roberts
- Subjects
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) ,Physics ,Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,FOS: Physical sciences ,Astronomy and Astrophysics ,Astrophysics ,Orbital period ,Astrophysics - Astrophysics of Galaxies ,Accretion (astrophysics) ,Space and Planetary Science ,Millisecond pulsar ,Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA) ,Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena ,Low Mass ,Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope - Abstract
Over the last few years, the number of known eclipsing radio millisecond pulsar systems in the Galactic field has dramatically increased, with many being associated with Fermi gamma-ray sources. All are in tight binaries (orbital period < 24 hr) with many being classical "black widows" which have very low mass companions (companion mass Mc << 0.1 Msol) but some are "redbacks" with low mass (Mc ~ 0.2 - 0.4Msol) companions which are probably non-degenerate. These latter are systems where the mass transfer process may have only temporarily halted, and so are transitional systems between low mass X-ray binaries and ordinary binary millisecond pulsars. Here we review the new discoveries and their multi-wavelength properties, and briefly discuss models of shock emission, mass determinations, and evolutionary scenarios., Proceedings of IAUS 291 "Neutron Stars and Pulsars: Challenges and Opportunities after 80 years", J. van Leeuwen (ed.); 6 pages, 2 figures
- Published
- 2012
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