Kavli Affiliate: Roger W. Romani
| First 5 Authors: Andrew G. Sullivan, Roger W. Romani, , ,
| Summary:
PSR J2215+5135 (J2215) is a `redback’ spider pulsar, where the intrabinary
shock (IBS) wraps around the pulsar rather than the stellar-mass companion.
Spider orbital light curves are modulated, dominated by their binary companion
thermal emission in the optical band and by IBS synchrotron emission in the
X-rays. We report on new XMM-Newton X-ray and U-band observations of J2215. We
produce orbital light curves and use them to model the system properties. From
our optical light curve modeling, we find a neutron star mass
$M_{NS}=2.15pm0.10 M_odot$, somewhat lower than previously reported. From the
X-ray analysis, we find that the IBS still wraps around the pulsar, but with a
wind/companion wind momenta ratio unusually close to unity, implying a flatter
IBS geometry {than seen in other spiders. Estimating the companion wind
momentum and speed from the X-ray light curve, we find a companion mass-loss
rate of ${dot M}_cgtrsim10^{-10}$ M$_odot$ yr$^{-1}$, so that J2215 may
become an isolated millisecond pulsar in $sim 1$ Gyr. Our X-ray analyses
support models of magnetic reconnection and particle acceleration in the highly
magnetized relativistic IBS.
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