Physics
Scientific paper
Jul 2006
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006hst..prop10845f&link_type=abstract
HST Proposal ID #10845. Cycle 15
Physics
Scientific paper
We propose deep ACS/WFC and NICMOS observations to search for optical companions to binary millisecond pulsar MSPs in two Globular Clusters GCs: Terzan 5 and NGC6266. Terzan 5 has the largest MSP population of any GC: 33 MSP 17 in binary systems have been discovered up to now in this stellar system. NGC6266 ranks fifth among the GC for wealth of MSPs but it is the only one in which all the six detected MSPs are in binary systems. Only 5 optical counterparts to binary MSP companions are known in GCs two of them have been discovered by our group: hence even the addition of a few new identifications are crucial to investigate the variety of processes occurring in binary MSPs in dense environment. The observations proposed here would easily double/triple the existing sample of known MSP companions, allowing the first meaningful study of the phenomena which drive the formation and evolution of these exotic systems. Moreover, since most of binary MSP in GC are formed via stellar interactions in the high density regions of the cluster, the determination of the nature of the companion and the incidence of this collisionally induced population have a significant impact on our knowledge of the cluster dynamics. Even more interesting, the study of the optical companions to NSs in a GC allows to derive tighter constraints than those obtainable for NS binaries in the galactic field on the properties mass, orbital inclination and so on of the compation star. This has, in turn, an intrisic importance for fundamental physics since it offers the opportunity of measuring the mass of the NS and hence to put constraints to the equation of state of matter at nuclear equilibrium density.
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