Arecibo PALFA survey and Einstein@Home: Binary pulsar discovery by volunteer computing

Knispel, B.; Lazarus, P.; Allen, B.; Anderson, D.; Aulbert, C.; Bhat, Ramesh; Bock, O.; Bogdanov, S.; Brazier, A.; Camilo, F.; Chatterjee, S.; Cordes, J.; Crawford, F.; Deneva, J.; Desvignes, G.; Fehrmann, H.; Freire, P.; Hammer, D.; Hessels, J.; Jenet, F.; Kaspi, V.; Kramer, M.; Van Leeuwen, J.; Lorimer, D.; Lyne, A.; MacHenschalk, B.; McLaughlin, M.; Messenger, C.; Nice, D.; Papa, M.; Pletsch, H.; Prix, R.; Ransom, S.; Siemens, X.; Stairs, I.; Stappers, B.; Stovall, K.; Venkataraman, A.

doi:10.1088/2041-8205/732/1/L1

Access Status

Open access via publisher

Authors

Knispel, B.

Lazarus, P.

Allen, B.

Anderson, D.

Aulbert, C.

Bhat, Ramesh

Bock, O.

Bogdanov, S.

Brazier, A.

Camilo, F.

Chatterjee, S.

Cordes, J.

Crawford, F.

Deneva, J.

Desvignes, G.

Fehrmann, H.

Freire, P.

Hammer, D.

Hessels, J.

Jenet, F.

Kaspi, V.

Kramer, M.

Van Leeuwen, J.

Lorimer, D.

Lyne, A.

MacHenschalk, B.

McLaughlin, M.

Messenger, C.

Nice, D.

Papa, M.

Pletsch, H.

Prix, R.

Ransom, S.

Siemens, X.

Stairs, I.

Stappers, B.

Stovall, K.

Venkataraman, A.

Date

2011

Type

Journal Article

Metadata

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Citation

Knispel, B. and Lazarus, P. and Allen, B. and Anderson, D. and Aulbert, C. and Bhat, R. and Bock, O. et al. 2011. Arecibo PALFA survey and Einstein@Home: Binary pulsar discovery by volunteer computing. Astrophysical Journal Letters. 732 (1 PART II).

Source Title

Astrophysical Journal Letters

DOI

10.1088/2041-8205/732/1/L1

ISSN

2041-8205

School

Curtin Institute of Radio Astronomy (Physics)

URI

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/55710

Collection

Curtin Research Publications

Abstract

We report the discovery of the 20.7ms binary pulsar J1952+2630, made using the distributed computing project Einstein@Home in Pulsar ALFA survey observations with the Arecibo telescope. Follow-up observations with the Arecibo telescope confirm the binary nature of the system. We obtain a circular orbital solution with an orbital period of 9.4hr, a projected orbital radius of 2.8lt-s, and a mass function of f = 0.15 M ? by analysis of spin period measurements. No evidence of orbital eccentricity is apparent; we set a 2s upper limit e ? 1.7 × 10 -3 . The orbital parameters suggest a massive white dwarf companion with a minimum mass of 0.95 M ? , assuming a pulsar mass of 1.4 M ? . Most likely, this pulsar belongs to the rare class of intermediate-mass binary pulsars. Future timing observations will aim to determine the parameters of this system further, measure relativistic effects, and elucidate the nature of the companion star. © 2011. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.