Intra-Binary Shock Heating of Black Widow Companions

Nicolas Sanchez; Roger W. Romani

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Intra-Binary Shock Heating of Black Widow Companions

Roger W. Romani, Nicolas Sanchez

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena · Submitted 11 Jun 2016

abstract compiled · 2026-09-23 · no language-model review

The authors' main claim As a test we apply the results to the high quality asymmetric optical light curves of PSR J2215+5135; the resulting fit gives a substantial improvement upon direct heating models and produces an X-ray light curve consistent with that seen.

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What the abstract itself states, as probabilities: claims first 0.04 · states limitation 0.97 · human participants 0.01 · controlled comparison 0.44 · randomized assignment 0.01 · states quantitative result 0.97 · compares with prior results 0.93 · mentions code or data availability 0.12.

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The low mass companions of evaporating binary pulsars (black widows and their ilk) are strongly heated on the side facing the pulsar. However in high-quality photometric and spectroscopic data the heating pattern does not match that expected for direct pulsar illumination. Here we explore heating mediated by an intra-binary shock (IBS). We develop a simple analytic model and implement it in the popular `ICARUS' light curve code. The model is parameterized by the wind momentum ratio beta and velocity v_Rel v_orb and assumes that the reprocessed pulsar wind emits prompt particles or radiation to heat the companion surface. We illustrate an interesting range of light curve asymmetries controlled by these parameters. The code also computes the IBS synchrotron emission pattern, and thus can model black widow X-ray light curves. As a test we apply the results to the high quality asymmetric optical light curves of PSR J2215+5135; the resulting fit gives a substantial improvement upon direct heating models and produces an X-ray light curve consistent with that seen. The IBS model parameters imply that, at the present loss rate, the companion evaporation has a characteristic timescale tau_evap ~150My. Still, the model is not fully satisfactory, indicating additional unmodeled physical effects.

background contribution method result interpretation main claim

What the classifier reports for each sentence. The number is the probability it gave the label.
#	sentence	role	the authors' own work	states the main conclusion	strength
s0	The low mass companions of evaporating binary pulsars (black widows and their ilk) are strongly heated on the side facing the pulsar.	background 1.00	0.14	0.06	asserted 1.00
s1	However in high-quality photometric and spectroscopic data the heating pattern does not match that expected for direct pulsar illumination.	gap 0.57	0.43	0.05	asserted 1.00
s2	Here we explore heating mediated by an intra-binary shock (IBS).	contribution 0.93	0.76	0.08	asserted 0.44
s3	We develop a simple analytic model and implement it in the popular `ICARUS' light curve code.	method 0.95	0.96	0.03	asserted 0.99
s4	The model is parameterized by the wind momentum ratio beta and velocity v_Rel v_orb and assumes that the reprocessed pulsar wind emits prompt particles or radiation to heat the companion surface.	method 0.99	0.82	0.05	asserted 0.99
s5	We illustrate an interesting range of light curve asymmetries controlled by these parameters.	result 0.77	0.90	0.06	asserted 0.99
s6	The code also computes the IBS synchrotron emission pattern, and thus can model black widow X-ray light curves.	method 0.63	0.87	0.05	asserted 1.00
s7	As a test we apply the results to the high quality asymmetric optical light curves of PSR J2215+5135; the resulting fit gives a substantial improvement upon direct heating models and produces an X-ray light curve consistent with that seen.	result 0.98	0.95	0.52	asserted 0.91
s8	The IBS model parameters imply that, at the present loss rate, the companion evaporation has a characteristic timescale tau_evap ~150My.	interpretation 0.57	0.91	0.22	asserted 0.80
s9	Still, the model is not fully satisfactory, indicating additional unmodeled physical effects.	limitation 1.00	0.82	0.08	asserted 0.94

What kind of paper the classifier reports this is: method or tool 0.67 · evidence from analysis of existing data 0.63.

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arXiv listing abstract v1

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full text
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C citations
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The paper

Original abstract

The low mass companions of evaporating binary pulsars (black widows and their ilk) are strongly heated on the side facing the pulsar. However in high-quality photometric and spectroscopic data the heating pattern does not match that expected for direct pulsar illumination. Here we explore heating mediated by an intra-binary shock (IBS). We develop a simple analytic model and implement it in the popular `ICARUS' light curve code. The model is parameterized by the wind momentum ratio beta and velocity v_Rel v_orb and assumes that the reprocessed pulsar wind emits prompt particles or radiation to heat the companion surface. We illustrate an interesting range of light curve asymmetries controlled by these parameters. The code also computes the IBS synchrotron emission pattern, and thus can model black widow X-ray light curves. As a test we apply the results to the high quality asymmetric optical light curves of PSR J2215+5135; the resulting fit gives a substantial improvement upon direct heating models and produces an X-ray light curve consistent with that seen. The IBS model parameters imply that, at the present loss rate, the companion evaporation has a characteristic timescale tau_evap ~150My. Still, the model is not fully satisfactory, indicating additional unmodeled physical effects.

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50 later papers cite it

Evidence: substantial. 44 of the citing papers share no author with it, and 6 of those carry a confident label from Pith's citation classifier.

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1 later paper by other authors is listed below: 1 cited it as support.

Cites it as support 1 of 2 papers with this label

Demonstrated that the double-peaked shape of the synchrotron lightcurve comes from Doppler boosting in the post-shock flow, as suggested by this paper and another work.

Global Kinetic Modeling of the Intrabinary Shock in Spider Pulsars (2022) · 0.98 · paraphrased: the licence does not allow quoting

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6 arXiv papers cite this in 12 sentences

Each citing sentence is taken from the citing paper's LaTeX source and typed by Pith's classifier. A label appears at probability 0.8 or more (0.95 for support), a contest at 0.7 or more; the quoted words are the citing authors'. How each label was checked · JSON

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Compares with it 2 papers

Instead, there may be a plateau that slopes downward from $ϕ=0.6$ to $ϕ=1$, a common asymmetry in redbacks, e.g., PSR J1023+0038 [ref] , PSR J2215+5135 [ref] , and PSR J2129$-$0429 [ref] .

XMM-Newton Observation and Optical Monitoring of the Candidate Redback Millisecond Pulsar 1FGL J0523.5$-$2529 · Optical and X-ray Results · 0.85
We note that the parallel and independent work by [ref] for the DP modulation shares some conclusions of this work.

Constraining Relativistic Bow Shock Properties in Rotation-Powered Millisecond Pulsar Binaries · INTRODUCTION · 0.97

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