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Auteurs principaux: Lorange, Alexandra, Pétri, Jérôme, Sautron, Mattéo, Vigon, Vincent
Format: Preprint
Publié: 2025
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Accès en ligne:https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13893
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author Lorange, Alexandra
Pétri, Jérôme
Sautron, Mattéo
Vigon, Vincent
author_facet Lorange, Alexandra
Pétri, Jérôme
Sautron, Mattéo
Vigon, Vincent
contents Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are spun up during their accretion phase in a binary system. The exchange of angular momentum between the accretion disk and the star tends to align the spin and orbital angular momenta on a very short time scale compared to the accretion stage. In this work, we study a subset of $γ$-ray MSPs in binaries for which the orbital inclination angle $i$ has been accurately constrained thanks to the Shapiro delay measurements. Our goal is to constrain the observer viewing angle $ζ$ and to check whether it agrees with the orbital inclination angle $i$, in other words if $ζ\approx i$. We use a Bayesian inference technique to fit the MSP $γ$-ray light curves based on the third $γ$-ray pulsar catalogue (3PC). The emission model relies on the striped wind model deduced from force-free neutron star magnetosphere simulations. We found good agreement between the two angles $i$ and $ζ$ for a significant fraction of our sample, about four fifth, confirming the spin-orbit alignment scenario during the accretion stage. However about one fifth of our sample deviates significantly from this alignment. The reasons are manifold: either the $γ$-ray fit is not reliable or some precession and external torque avoid an almost perfect alignment.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2507_13893
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The spin-orbit alignment hypothesis in millisecond pulsars
Lorange, Alexandra
Pétri, Jérôme
Sautron, Mattéo
Vigon, Vincent
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are spun up during their accretion phase in a binary system. The exchange of angular momentum between the accretion disk and the star tends to align the spin and orbital angular momenta on a very short time scale compared to the accretion stage. In this work, we study a subset of $γ$-ray MSPs in binaries for which the orbital inclination angle $i$ has been accurately constrained thanks to the Shapiro delay measurements. Our goal is to constrain the observer viewing angle $ζ$ and to check whether it agrees with the orbital inclination angle $i$, in other words if $ζ\approx i$. We use a Bayesian inference technique to fit the MSP $γ$-ray light curves based on the third $γ$-ray pulsar catalogue (3PC). The emission model relies on the striped wind model deduced from force-free neutron star magnetosphere simulations. We found good agreement between the two angles $i$ and $ζ$ for a significant fraction of our sample, about four fifth, confirming the spin-orbit alignment scenario during the accretion stage. However about one fifth of our sample deviates significantly from this alignment. The reasons are manifold: either the $γ$-ray fit is not reliable or some precession and external torque avoid an almost perfect alignment.
title The spin-orbit alignment hypothesis in millisecond pulsars
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2507.13893