Hunting for Optical Companions to Binary Msps in Globular Clusters

Details Hunting for Optical Companions to Binary Msps in Globular Clusters Hunting for Optical Companions to Binary Msps in Globular Clusters

Jul 2008

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008hst..prop11615f&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #11615. Cycle 17

Computer Science

Performance

Scientific paper

Here we present a proposal which exploits the re-newed potential of HST after the Service Mission 4 for probing the population of binary Millisecond Pulsars {MSPs} in Globular Clusters. In particular we intend to: {1} extend the search for optical counterparts in Terzan 5, by pushing the performance of the WFC3 IR channel to sample the entire MS extension down to M=0.1 Mo; {2} perform a deep multi-band search of MSP companions with the WFC3, in 3 clusters {namely NGC6440, M28 and M5}, where recent radio observations have found particularly interesting objects; {3} derive an accurate radial velocity {with STIS} of the puzzling optical companion COM6266B recently discovered by our group, to firmly assess its cluster membership. This program is the result of a large collaboration among the three major groups {lead by Freire, Ransom and Possenti} which are performing extensive MSP search in GCs in the radio bands, and our group which has a large experience in performing accurate stellar photometry in crowded environments. This collaboration has produced a number of outstanding discoveries. In fact, three of the 6 optical counterparts to binary MSP companions known to date in GCs have been discovered by our group. The observations here proposed would easily double/triple the existing sample of known MSP companions, allowing the first meaningful approach to the study of the formation, evolution and recycling process of pulsar in GCs. Moreover, since most of binary MSPs in GCs are thought to form via stellar interactions in the high density core regions, the determination of the nature of the companion and the incidence of this collisionally induced population has a significant impact on our knowledge of the cluster dynamics. Even more interesting, the study of the optical companions to NSs in GCs allows one to derive tighter constraints {than those obtainable for NS binaries in the Galactic field} on the system properties. This has, in turn, an intrisic importance for fundamental physics, since it offers the opportunity of measuring the mass of the NS and hence constraining the equation of state of matter at the nuclear equilibrium density.;

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