A Light Redback Companion of PSR J1622-0315 and Irradiation Power in Spider Systems

Y. X.Jane Yap, Albert K.H. Kong, Kwan Lok Li

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4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We report optical observations of the millisecond pulsar binary system PSR J1622-0315 with the Lulin 1 m telescope in Taiwan and the Lijiang 2.4 m telescope in China between 2019 and 2021. The companion of the pulsar, which is of V ∼ 19 mag, showed ellipsoidal-distorted orbital variations in its light curves. The best-fit model to the light curves, with the binary code PHOEBE, gives a companion mass of 0.122 ± 0.006 M . This places PSR J1622-0315 in the spider-system subclass. We compared the properties of PSR J1622-0315 with other spider pulsar binaries for the scalings between the spin-down luminosity derived for the pulsar, irradiation luminosity of the companion, and X-ray luminosity of the binary. We find that pulsar irradiation in PSR J1622-0315 is insignificant and the irradiation luminosity of the transitional millisecond pulsars PSR J1023+0038 and PSR J1227-4853 are the highest among the redback systems.

Original languageEnglish
Article number21
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume955
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023 Sept 1

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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