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Physics Today Physics Today A New Class of Pulsars Donald C. Backer and Shrinivas R. Kulkarni Citation: Physics Today 43(3), 26 (1990); doi: 10.1063/1.881227 View online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.881227 View Table of Contents: http://scitation.aip.org/content/aip/magazine/physicstoday/43/3?ver=pdfcov Published by the AIP Publishing Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions. Download to IP: 131.215.225.221 On: Thu, 24 Mar 2016 19:00:11 A NEW CLASS OF PULSARS In 1939, seven years after the discovery of the neutron, Binary pulsars, pulsars with millisecond nuclear physicists constructed the first models of a periods and pulsars in globular dusters "neutron star." Stable results were found with masses comparable to the Sun's and radii of about 10 km. are distinguished by their evolutionary For the next three decades, neutron stars remained histories, and are providing tools for purely theoretical entities. Then in 1967, radioastron- fundamental tests of physics. omers at the University of Cambridge observed a radio signal pulsing every 1.337 seconds coming from a single point in the sky—a pulsar.1 Its source was almost certainly a rapidly rotating, highly magnetized neutron Donald C. Docker star. The pulsars discovered since then number about 500, ond Shrinivos R. Kulkarni and their fundamental interest to astronomers and cosmologists has more than justified the excitement that was sparked by their initial discovery. Increasingly sensitive systematic surveys for new pulsars continue at radio observatories around the world. According to the prevailing view, the observed beam of radio emission is generated in relativistic currents along certain magnetic field lines. The beam rotates with the neutron star, much like the beacon of a lighthouse, and we observe pulses that repeat at the star's rotation rate as the beam sweeps past the Earth. Most astronomers agree that pulsars are the progeny of massive stars. When the inert ashes of nuclear burning in the core of a star exceed a critical mass, the core collapses to form a neutron star. An outgoing shock wave, which expels the outer layers to form a supernova, accompanies the collapse. The neutron star, in at least some cases, is a pulsar. Evidence of the combined process of collapse and explosion can be found in the half-dozen pulsars that have been observed at the centers of supernova remnants. Observations of these young pulsars suggest that neutron stars are born with a strong dipole field—strength, 1012 G at the surface—and with periods as short as 10 msec. As a pulsar radiates away its rotational energy, its pulse period gradually increases, and the energy in its emission beam decreases, until, after about 10 million years, it disappears from the radio sky. Or at least this is how most pulsars observed before 1982 were thought to behave. During the last decade a new class of pulsars has emerged, with ages comparable to the age of the universe, or Hubble time, of 10 billion years. This class encompasses three overlapping categories: binary, millisecond and globular-cluster pulsars. Signals associated with one specimen that is both a binary and a millisecond pulsar are shown in figure 1. As a group, these new pulsars appear to be distinguished by an evolutionary epoch during which they accrete mass and angular momentum from a companion star. This process is sometimes referred to as "spin-up," and the pulsars that undergo it are Donald Backer is a professor of astronomy and research accordingly called "spun-up pulsars." In addition to their astronomer at the University of California, Berkeley. obvious interest to astrophysicists, spun-up pulsars are Shrinivas Kulkarni is an assistant professor at the California intriguing subjects for diverse kinds of physics experi- Institute of Technology. ments. They have been used to test aspects of general Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions. Download to IP: 131.215.225.221 On: Thu, 24 Mar 2016 19:00:11 2 6 PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1990 hysics Optical nebula surrounding the binary, eclipsing millisecond pulsar 1957 + 20, depicted in the Balmer-a line of hydrogen. The pulsar is the yellowish star at the intersection of the axes indicated by the arrows. High-energy particles, radiation and magnetic fields ejected from the pulsar push the interstellar medium, producing the brilliant nebula. Its cometary shape is due to the motion of the pulsar toward the lower left (now confirmed from Arecibo timing observations by Marty Ryba, Joseph Taylor and Daniel Stinebring). (Photo taken by Jeff Hester and Shrinivas Kulkarni at the Palomar Observatory.) Figure 1 relativity and cosmology, and they may eventually provide model the surface field strength is estimated from for an improved terrestrial time standard. (Recent reviews and conference proceedings on this class of pulsars = 10'- can be found in references 2-6.) where P=2n/(o and the period derivative - 1 5 P—- = •*P 11). ' X' xlOv LsJeVVc/ UsVeVc . XPUuJ.lOsIAa.r1Os \Jo 1f vV a*_r*!y Vi nl igl t adg-Ce^s^O Conventional models distribute in a diagram of B (calculated for a = v/2) versus A simple model for a pulsar is a rotating sphere with a mo- 45 2 P (figure 2). ment of inertia / approximately equal to 10 g cm , in Despite its rough agreement with experiment, the which a bar magnet of intensity B is embedded at an angle bar-magnet model is grossly incomplete. In particular, it a with respect to the rotation axis. The rotational energy, z 1 does not account for the fact that the intense rotating \Ico , will decrease at a rate proportional to B^co as the magnetic fields generate strong electric fields that can rip pulsar emits magnetic-dipole radiation. The measured material from the surface of the star. Some of this matter second derivatives of the periods of several pulsars will form a magnetosphere, which corotates with the star approximately agree with this simple model. In this out to a radius where the centrifugal force on the plasma Reuse of AIP Publishing content is subject to the terms at: https://publishing.aip.org/authors/rights-and-permissions. Download to IP: 131.215.225.221 On: Thu, 24 Mar 2016 19:00:11 PHYSICS TODAY MARCH 1990 2 7 Inferred surface magnetic fields versus rotation periods, plotted for all pulsars with known period derivatives. Single pulsars are plotted in black, binary pulsars in red. Note the concentration of the single pulsars toward the upper right-hand region. The evolutionary paths of three young pulsars are suggested with small yellow arrows, and the inferred direction of evolution from young to old pulsars is indicated by the broad yellow arrow. The blue lines are limits derived from the pulsar models discussed in the text, and the yellow line indicates the maximum rotation frequency that a pulsar can sustain before tearing apart from centrifugal forces. The evolutionary path expected for the binary and millisecond pulsars is shown by a green arrow, moving first toward the spinup limit and then back toward + 10' the Hubble and e e " production 0.001 0.01 0.1 limits. Figure 2 PERIOD (sec) overcomes the restoring force of the magnetic field—the remnant) to 4.3 sec, with a median value of 0.7 sec. In 1974, corotation radius. The charge distribution in the magne- using the giant 305-m Arecibo radiotelescope, Russell tosphere adjusts to balance the rotation-driven electric Hulse and Joseph Taylor discovered the first pulsar in a bi- fields. The magnetic field lines that just reach the nary system.7 The system is named 1913 + 16 for its corotation radius define a toroidal surface about the celestial coordinates of 19 hours and 13 minutes of right as- pulsar. This torus is the boundary between the "closed" cension and 16 degrees of declination. It contains a 59- magnetosphere—the part of the magnetosphere enclosed msec pulsar in a 7.8-hour elliptical orbit around a by the torus—and the part outside the torus (see figure 3). companion, which most likely is another neutron star. Although particles in the closed magnetosphere are In the early 1970s x-ray astronomers, using space- trapped, those that enter the open magnetosphere pass borne telescopes, independently detected signals from into the interstellar medium. In some favorable cases, neutron stars. Two classes of Galactic x-ray objects were these particles and the dipole radiation interact with the found: pulsating sources in binary systems near the surrounding interstellar medium to form a dramatic bow Galactic plane and unpulsed sources in the central bulge shock (figure 1). of the Galaxy and in globular clusters. The 150 globular The high power of a typical pulsar signal points to its clusters in our galaxy are ancient self-gravitating clusters being some form of coherent radiation, which many of 105 to 106 stars, which are distributed in a sphere mostly cosmologists think is generated in a relativistic e + e~ outside the plane of the Milky Way. The x-ray emission current in the open magnetosphere along polar magnetic for both types is most likely blackbody radiation from field lines. The e+e~ cascade discharge that forms this matter accreted from a companion star, which is heated to current requires a minimum voltage between the surface approximately 107 K as it falls into the deep gravitational of the star and the interstellar medium. This voltage is potential well of the neutron star. generated by the pulsar's rotation and is proportional to The first class, x-ray pulsars, probably have strong BIP2.
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