A Rotational Speed Limit for Millisecond Pulsars

Details A Rotational Speed Limit for Millisecond Pulsars A Rotational Speed Limit for Millisecond Pulsars

May 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005aas...206.1702c&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society Meeting 206, #17.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 37, p.460

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Pulsars are highly-magnetized spinning neutron stars formed in the supernova collapse of massive stars at the end of their nuclear-burning lifetime. Some pulsars are spun up to millisecond periods by torques exerted by a binary companion star. These millisecond pulsars are spinnning near their centrifugal breakup limit, with surface velocities nearly 20 percent the speed of light. However, recent X-ray and radio timing measurements indicate that the pulsar spin frequency distribution cuts off sharply at the fast end (around 700 Hz), well before the predicted centrifugal break-up limit is reached. Although the braking mechanism that halts further spin-up is not yet known, one possible explanation is that angular momentum losses via gravitational radiation losses may be responsible. If so, then these gravitational waves should eventually be detectable by gravitaional-wave interferometers like LIGO.

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