Bibcode
Altamirano, D.; Patruno, A.; Heinke, C. O.; Markwardt, C.; Strohmayer, T. E.; Linares, M.; Wijnands, R.; van der Klis, M.; Swank, J. H.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 712, Issue 1, pp. L58-L62 (2010).
Advertised on:
3
2010
Citations
67
Refereed citations
52
Description
We report on the discovery of the second accreting millisecond X-ray
pulsar (AMXP) in the globular cluster NGC 6440. Pulsations with a
frequency of 205.89 Hz were detected with RXTE on 2009 August 30,
October 1 and October 28, during the decays of lsim4 day outbursts of a
newly X-ray transient source in NGC 6440. By studying the Doppler shift
of the pulsation frequency, we find that the system is an ultra-compact
binary with an orbital period of 57.3 minutes and a projected semimajor
axis of 6.22 lt-ms. Based on the mass function, we estimate a lower
limit to the mass of the companion to be 0.0067 M sun
(assuming a 1.4 M sun neutron star). This new pulsar shows
the shortest outburst recurrence time among AMXPs (~1 month). If this
behavior does not cease, this AMXP has the potential to be one of the
best sources in which to study how the binary system and the neutron
star spin evolve. Furthermore, the characteristics of this new source
indicate that there might exist a population of AMXPs undergoing weak
outbursts which are undetected by current all-sky X-ray monitors. NGC
6440 is the only globular cluster to host two known AMXPs, while no
AMXPs have been detected in any other globular cluster.