Seminar

Heating Before Eating: X-Ray observations of Redback Millisecond Pulsar Systems in the ablation state

By
Dr. Mallory Roberts (New York University Abu Dhabi (NYYAD) and Eureka Scientific)
Date
Place
DAM seminar
seminar ICCUB
Redbacks are eclipsing millisecond radio pulsars in close orbits
around companions which are non-degenerate and nearly Roche-lobe
filling. Several have been observed to transition between a state
where the radio pulsar is visible and there is X-ray emission from a
shock between the pulsar wind and the ablated material off of the
companion, and a state where there appears to be an accretion disk and
the radio pulsations are not visible. Here we present X-Ray studies of
two recently discovered systems. A Chandra observation of PSR
J1628-3205 over its entire 5 hour orbit with Chandra shows little
evidence for X-Ray variability. An XMM-Newton observation of PSR
J2129-0429 over its 15.2 hour orbit shows strong orbital variability
with an intriguing two peaked light curve. We compare these systems'
X-Ray properties to other redbacks and comment on the differences
between their properties and those of black widows.