Bibcode
Altamirano, D.; Cavecchi, Y.; Patruno, A.; Watts, A.; Linares, M.; Degenaar, N.; Kalamkar, M.; van der Klis, M.; Rea, N.; Casella, P.; Armas Padilla, M.; Kaur, R.; Yang, Y. J.; Soleri, P.; Wijnands, R.
Bibliographical reference
The Astrophysical Journal Letters, Volume 727, Issue 1, article id. L18 (2011).
Advertised on:
1
2011
Citations
37
Refereed citations
30
Description
We report on the discovery and the timing analysis of the first
eclipsing accretion-powered millisecond X-ray pulsar (AMXP): SWIFT
J1749.4-2807. The neutron star rotates at a frequency of ~517.9 Hz and
is in a binary system with an orbital period of 8.8 hr and a projected
semimajor axis of ~1.90 lt-s. Assuming a neutron star between 0.8 and
2.2 M sun and using the mass function of the system and the
eclipse half-angle, we constrain the mass of the companion and the
inclination of the system to be in the ~0.46-0.81 M sun and ~
74fdg4-77fdg3 range, respectively. To date, this is the tightest
constraint on the orbital inclination of any AMXP. As in other AMXPs,
the pulse profile shows harmonic content up to the third overtone.
However, this is the first AMXP to show a first overtone with rms
amplitudes between ~6% and ~23%, which is the strongest ever seen and
which can be more than two times stronger than the fundamental. The fact
that SWIFT J1749.4-2807 is an eclipsing system that shows uncommonly
strong harmonic content suggests that it might be the best source to
date to set constraints on neutron star properties including compactness
and geometry.