Abstract
One suggested progenitor system for the 1.5–ms pulsar PSR1937+214 is a close binary containing, in the late stages of its evolution, a neutron star and a very-low-mass (≲0.1 M⊙) degenerate dwarf helium star1,2. The two main questions that affect the plausibility of this scenario are: (1) whether the system's evolution would in fact leave the neutron star at the observed high spin rate; and (2) whether the secondary could be disrupted, leaving a single pulsar. Here, we have analysed such a system using the predictions of Ghosh and Lamb3, and find that the equilibrium rotation period predicted for the neutron star immediately before the disruption of the secondary is so large that matter accreted from a disk after disruption would be unlikely to spin the pulsar up to the observed period. Furthermore, our estimate for the magnitude of tidal torques that transfer rotational angular momentum from an accretion disk back into the orbital motion may give values substantially higher than the previous estimate1;. It is thus unlikely that PSR1937+214 originated in a binary system in which the companion had an extremely low mass at disruption.
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Jeffrey, L. Feasibility of a low-mass binary source progenitor for PSR1937+214. Nature 319, 384–386 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/319384a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/319384a0
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