Abstract
A millisecond pulsar that is formed by spin-up 'recycling'1,2 in a binary system will, once the mass transfer becomes temporarily interrupted, start to evaporate its companion star as a consequence of the large impinging pulsar energy flux. This evaporation is easiest if the pulsar has a short pulse period, the companion star has a relatively large radius and is therefore hydrogen-rich, and the orbital period is short. Evaporation of companion stars induced by millisecond pulsars could account for the lack of low-mass X-ray binaries with short orbital periods below the period gap of the cataclysmic variables, and for the statistics of new-born radio pulsars and their space velocities.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Alpar, M. A., Cheng, A. F., Ruderman, M. A. & Shaham, J. Nature 300, 728–730 (1982).
Radhakrishnan, V. & Srinivasan, G. Proc. Second Asian-Pacific Regional Meeting on Astronomy (eds Hidayat, B. & Feast, M. W.) 423–431 (Tira Pustaka, Jakarta, 1984).
Backer, D. C., Kulkarni, S. R., Heiles, C., Davis, M. M. & Goss, W. M. Nature 300, 615–618 (1982).
Fruchter, A. S., Stinebring, D. R. & Taylor, J. H. Nature 333, 297–299 (1988).
Ruderman, M. A., Shaham, J., Tavani, M. & Eichler, D. Astrophys. J. (in the press).
Ruderman, M. A., Shaham, J. & Tavani, M. Astrophys. J. (in the press).
Backer, D. C., Kulkarni, S. R. & Taylor, J. H. Nature 301, 314–315 (1983).
Manchester, R. N. & Taylor, J. H. Pulsars (Freeman, San Francisco, 1977).
Abbott, D. C. Astrophys. J. 225, 893–901 (1978).
Savonije, G. J. in Accretion-driven Stellar X-ray Sources (eds Lewin, W. H. G. & van den Heuvel, E. P. J.) 343–365 (Cambridge University Press, 1983).
Ritter, H. Astr. Astrophys. Suppl. 70, 335–367 (1987).
Parmar, A. N. & White, N. E. in X-ray Astronomy with EXOSAT (eds Pallavicini, R. & White, N. E.) (Mem. Astr. Soc. Italia, in the press).
Paczynski, B. & Sienkiewicz, R. Astrophys J. 268, 825–831 (1983).
Rappaport, S., Verbunt, F. & Joss, P. C. Astrophys. J. 275, 713–731 (1983).
Ghosh, P. & Lamb, F. K. Astrophys. J. 234, 296–316 (1979).
Van den Heuvel, E. P. J., Van Paradijs, J. & Taam, R. E. Nature 322, 153–155 (1986).
Bhattacharya, D. & Srinivasan, G. Curr. Sci. 55, 327–330 (1986).
Narayan, R. & Kulkarni, S. Astrophys. J. (in the press).
Cote, J. & Pylyser, E. Astr. Astrophys. (in the press).
Van den Heuvel, E. P. J. IAU Symp. 93 155–175 (1981).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
van den Heuvel, E., van Paradijs, J. Fate of the companion stars of ultra-rapid pulsars. Nature 334, 227–228 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334227a0
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/334227a0
This article is cited by
-
A binary pulsar in a 53-minute orbit
Nature (2023)
-
Quark novae: An alternative channel for the formation of isolated millisecond pulsars
Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy (2019)
-
Accretion, ablation and propeller evolution in close millisecond pulsar binary systems
Astrophysics and Space Science (2013)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
