A Search for Debris Disks around Variable Pulsars

Details A Search for Debris Disks around Variable Pulsars A Search for Debris Disks around Variable Pulsars

Mar 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008sptz.prop50345s&link_type=abstract

Spitzer Proposal ID #50345

Computer Science

Scientific paper

After a supernova explosion, a modest amount of material is likely to fall back into a disk surrounding the resultant neutron star. The material will aggregate into rocky debris and the disk will be stable for the entire lifetime of a canonical (non-recycled) radio pulsar. We propose a search for debris disks around older canonical pulsars. We have developed a model that unifies the different classes of radio variability observed in many older pulsars. Rocky material migrates inwards from a debris disk and is ablated inside the pulsar magnetosphere. This material alters the electrodynamics in the magnetosphere and can cause the observed quiescent and bursting states observed in nulling pulsars, intermittent pulsars, and rotating radio transients. With this model in mind, we select three nulling pulsars and one intermittent pulsar as the best candidates to host debris disks detectable by the Spitzer IRAC camera. In addition to the potential of detecting debris disks in this new environment, we will be able to test our model of pulsar variability. Disk luminosities and upper limits will set debris migration rates and hence the role debris can play in altering pulsar emission. Previous searches for debris around pulsars have focused on searching for fallback disks around very young neutron stars; young, energetic pulsars; and old recycled millisecond pulsars, for which debris likely forms from a different mechanism. By observing older canonical pulsars, we complete a survey of all classes of neutron stars and can assess presence of debris disk as a function of pulsar type.

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