A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple

Burdge, Kevin B.; Marsh, T. R.; Fuller, Jim; Bellm, Eric C.; Caiazzo, Ilaria; Chakrabarty, Deepto; Coughlin, M. W.; De, Kishalay; Dhillon, V.; Graham, M. J.; Rodrí, guez-Gil, Pablo; Jaodand, Amruta; Kaplan, David L.; Kara, Erin; Kong, A. K. H.; Kulkarni, Sumeet; Li, Kwan-Lok; Littlefair, S.; Majid, Walid A.; Mróz, P.; Pearlman, Aaron B.; Phinney, E. S.; Roestel, Jan van; Simcoe, Robert A.; Andreoni, Igor; Drake, A. J.; Dekany, Richard; Duev, Dmitry A.; Kool, Erik C.; Mahabal, A.; Medford, Michael S.; Riddle, Reed; Prince, Thomas A.

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04551-1

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 85 publications

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“…While both sources are in X-ray quiescence we will search for radio pulsations. Additionally spider pulsars are known to harbour some of the most massive NSs (Romani et al 2012;Linares et al 2018;Burdge et al 2022) which is consistent with the ∼ 2𝑀 NS in EXO 0748 (Knight et al 2022b). Our speculations could be settled by understanding whether ablation occurs solely in NS XRBs or whether it also occurs in BH XRBs.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

The $\textit{False Widow}$ Link Between Neutron Star X-ray Binaries and Spider Pulsars

Knight¹,

Ingram²,

Eijnden³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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The discovery of transitional millisecond pulsars (tMSPs) provided conclusive proof that neutron star (NS) low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) comprise part of the evolutionary pathway towards binary millisecond pulsars (MSPs). Redback and black widow 'spider' pulsars are a sub-category of binary MSPs that 'devour' their companions through ablation -the process through which material is lifted from the stellar surface by a pulsar wind. In addition to reducing the companion star's mass, ablation introduces observable characteristics like extended, energy-dependent and asymmetric eclipse profiles in systems observed at a sufficiently high inclination. Here, we present a detailed study and comparison of the X-ray eclipses of two NS LMXBs; Swift J1858.6−0814 and EXO 0748−676. Some of the X-ray eclipse characteristics observed in these two LMXBs are similar to the radio eclipse characteristics of eclipsing redback and black widow pulsars, suggesting that they may also host ablated companion stars. X-ray irradiation or a pulsar wind could drive the ablation. We conduct orbital phase-resolved spectroscopy for both LMXBs to map the column density, ionization and covering fraction of the material outflow. From this, we infer the presence of highly ionized and clumpy ablated material around the companion star in both systems. We term LMXBs undergoing ablation, false widows, and speculate that they may be the progenitors of redback pulsars under the assumption that ablation begins in the LMXB stage. Therefore, the false widows could provide a link between LMXBs and spider pulsars. The detection of radio pulsations during non-accreting states can support this hypothesis.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

The $\textit{False Widow}$ Link Between Neutron Star X-ray Binaries and Spider Pulsars

Knight¹,

Ingram²,

Eijnden³

et al. 2023

Preprint

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“…At the bottom of the tables, we also include four candidate systems for which radio pulsations have not yet been detected, but that have strong evidence for a black widow classification based on the multiwavelength data. These are 4FGL J1408.6-2917 (this work), 4FGL J0335.0+7502 (Li et al 2021), 4FGL J0935.3+0901 (Wang et al 2020;Halpern 2022), and ZTF J1406+1222 (Burdge et al 2022), a recently discovered candidate black widow in a hierarchical triple.…”

Section: The Black Widow Samplementioning

confidence: 76%

A New Flaring Black Widow Candidate and Demographics of Black Widow Millisecond Pulsars in the Galactic Field

Swihart

Strader

Chomiuk

et al. 2022

ApJ

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We present the discovery of a new optical/X-ray source likely associated with the Fermi γ-ray source 4FGL J1408.6–2917. Its high-amplitude periodic optical variability, large spectroscopic radial-velocity semiamplitude, evidence for optical emission lines and flaring, and X-ray properties together imply the source is probably a new black widow millisecond pulsar binary. We compile the properties of the 41 confirmed and suspected field black widows, finding a median secondary mass of 0.027 ± 0.003 M ⊙. Considered jointly with the more massive redback millisecond pulsar binaries, we find that the “spider” companion mass distribution remains strongly bimodal, with essentially zero systems having companion masses of between ∼0.07 and 0.1 M ⊙. X-ray emission from black widows is typically softer and less luminous than in redbacks, consistent with less efficient particle acceleration in the intrabinary shock in black widows, excepting a few systems that appear to have more efficient “redback-like” shocks. Together black widows and redbacks dominate the census of the fastest spinning field millisecond pulsars in binaries with known companion types, making up ≳80% of systems with P spin < 2 ms. Similar to redbacks, the neutron star masses in black widows appear on average significantly larger than the canonical 1.4 M ⊙, and many of the highest-mass neutron stars claimed to date are black widows with M NS ≳ 2.1 M ⊙. Both of these observations are consistent with an evolutionary picture where spider millisecond pulsars emerge from short orbital period progenitors that had a lengthy period of mass transfer initiated while the companion was on the main sequence, leading to fast spins and high masses.

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“…We discovered ZTF J0127+5258 using archival photometry from the ZTF as part of an ongoing campaign to identify short orbital period binaries (Burdge et al 2020a). The object was discovered in a search for periodic photometric variations in 20 million objects selected as being underluminous relative to the main sequence of stars in Gaia DR2 data (Gaia Collaboration et al 2018); this selection and the period search are described in further detail in Burdge et al (2020aBurdge et al ( , 2022b. We note that ZTF J0127+5258 falls in a chip gap in the ZTF's primary field grid and thus only contains photometry from the secondary field grid.…”

Section: Discovery In Ztf Datamentioning

confidence: 94%

Orbital Decay in an Accreting and Eclipsing 13.7 Minute Orbital Period Binary with a Luminous Donor

Burdge

El-Badry

Rappaport

et al. 2023

ApJL

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We report the discovery of ZTF J0127+5258, a compact mass-transferring binary with an orbital period of 13.7 minutes. The system contains a white dwarf accretor, which likely originated as a post–common envelope carbon–oxygen (CO) white dwarf, and a warm donor (T eff,donor = 16,400 ± 1000 K). The donor probably formed during a common envelope phase between the CO white dwarf and an evolving giant that left behind a helium star or white dwarf in a close orbit with the CO white dwarf. We measure gravitational wave–driven orbital inspiral with ∼51σ significance, which yields a joint constraint on the component masses and mass transfer rate. While the accretion disk in the system is dominated by ionized helium emission, the donor exhibits a mixture of hydrogen and helium absorption lines. Phase-resolved spectroscopy yields a donor radial velocity semiamplitude of 771 ± 27 km s−1, and high-speed photometry reveals that the system is eclipsing. We detect a Chandra X-ray counterpart with L X ∼ 3 × 1031 erg s−1. Depending on the mass transfer rate, the system will likely either evolve into a stably mass-transferring helium cataclysmic variable, merge to become an R CrB star, or explode as a Type Ia supernova in the next million years. We predict that the Laser Space Interferometer Antenna (LISA) will detect the source with a signal-to-noise ratio of 24 ± 6 after 4 yr of observations. The system is the first LISA-loud mass-transferring binary with an intrinsically luminous donor, a class of sources that provide the opportunity to leverage the synergy between optical and infrared time domain surveys, X-ray facilities, and gravitational-wave observatories to probe general relativity, accretion physics, and binary evolution.

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A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple

Abstract: How to cite:Please refer to published version for the most recent bibliographic citation information. If a published version is known of, the repository item page linked to above, will contain details on accessing it.

Cited by 15 publications

References 85 publications

The $\textit{False Widow}$ Link Between Neutron Star X-ray Binaries and Spider Pulsars

The $\textit{False Widow}$ Link Between Neutron Star X-ray Binaries and Spider Pulsars

A New Flaring Black Widow Candidate and Demographics of Black Widow Millisecond Pulsars in the Galactic Field

Orbital Decay in an Accreting and Eclipsing 13.7 Minute Orbital Period Binary with a Luminous Donor

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