Recycling Pulsars: spins, masses and ages

TL;DR

This paper investigates the formation and evolution of millisecond pulsars through the recycling process, analyzing their spins, masses, ages, and the accretion history in binary systems.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the recycling scenario, including the location of the spin-up line, accreted mass estimates, and age constraints for observed recycled pulsars.

Findings

The spin-up line's position in the (P,Pdot)-diagram is characterized.

Estimated accreted mass needed for specific spin periods.

Constraints on true ages of recycled pulsars using isochrones.

Abstract

Although the first millisecond pulsars (MSPs) were discovered 30 years ago we still do not understand all details of their formation process. Here, we present new results from Tauris, Langer & Kramer (2012) on the recycling scenario leading to radio MSPs with helium or carbon-oxygen white dwarf companions via evolution of low- and intermediate mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs, IMXBs). We discuss the location of the spin-up line in the (P,Pdot)-diagram and estimate the amount of accreted mass needed to obtain a given spin period and compare with observations. Finally, we constrain the true ages of observed recycled pulsars via calculated isochrones in the (P,Pdot)-diagram.