Modelling the y-ray and radio light curves of the double pulsar system
Date
2014Author
Seyffert, A.S.
Venter, C.
Harding, A.K.
Johnson, T.J.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Guillemot et al. recently reported the discovery [1] of
-ray pulsations from the
22.7 ms pulsar (pulsar A) in the famous double pulsar system J0737−3039A/B. The
-ray light
curve (LC) of pulsar A has two peaks separated by approximately half a rotation, and these are
non-coincident with the observed radio and X-ray peaks. This suggests that the
-ray emission
originates in a part of the magnetosphere distinct from where the radio and X-ray radiation
is generated. Thus far, three different methods have been applied to constrain the viewing
geometry of pulsar A (its inclination and observer angles and ): geometric modelling of the
radio and
-ray light curves, modelling of the position angle sweep in phase seen in the radio
polarisation data, and independent studies of the time evolution of the radio pulse profile of
pulsar A. These three independent, complementary methods have yielded consistent results:
pulsar A’s rotation axis is likely perpendicular to the orbital plane of the binary system, and
its magnetic axis close to lying in the orbital plane (making this pulsar an orthogonal rotator).
The observer is furthermore observing emission close to the magnetic axis. Thus far, however,
current geometric models could not reproduce all the characteristics of the radio and
-ray light
curves, specifically the large radio-to-
phase lag. In this paper we discuss some preliminary
modelling attempts to address this problem, and offer ideas on how the LC fits may be improved
by adapting the standard geometric models in order to reproduce the profile positions more
accurately
URI
http://hdl.handle.net/10394/16235http://events.saip.org.za/getFile.py/access?contribId=245&sessionId=4&resId=0&materialId=paper&confId=32