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Astrophysics > Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

arXiv:2402.06722 (astro-ph)
[Submitted on 9 Feb 2024]

Title:A $1.9\,M_{\odot}$ neutron star candidate in a 2-year orbit

Authors:Kareem El-Badry, Joshua D. Simon, Henrique Reggiani,
Hans-Walter Rix, David W. Latham, Allyson Bieryla, Lars A. Buchhave,
Sahar Shahaf, Tsevi Mazeh, Sukanya Chakrabarti, Puragra Guhathakurta,
Ilya V. Ilyin
Download a PDF of the paper titled A $1.9\,M_{\odot}$ neutron star
candidate in a 2-year orbit, by Kareem El-Badry and 11 other authors
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    Abstract:We report discovery and characterization of a
    main-sequence G star orbiting a dark object with mass $1.90\pm
    0.04\,M_{\odot}$. The system was discovered via Gaia astrometry
    and has an orbital period of 731 days. We obtained multi-epoch RV
    follow-up over a period of 600 days, allowing us to refine the
    Gaia orbital solution and precisely constrain the masses of both
    components. The luminous star is a $\gtrsim 12$ Gyr-old,
    low-metallicity halo star near the main-sequence turnoff ($T_{\rm
    eff} \approx 6000$ K; $\log\left(g/\left[{\rm cm\,s^{-2}}\right]\
    right)\approx 4.0; \rm [Fe/H]\approx-1.25$; $M\approx0.79\,M_{\
    odot}$) with a highly enhanced lithium abundance. The RV mass
    function sets a minimum companion mass for an edge-on orbit of
    $M_2 > 1.67\,M_{\odot}$, well above the Chandrasekhar limit. The
    Gaia inclination constraint, $i=68.8\pm 1.4$ deg, then implies a
    companion mass of $M_2= 1.90\pm 0.04\,M_{\odot}$. The companion
    is most likely a massive neutron star: the only viable
    alternative is two massive white dwarfs in a close binary, but
    this scenario is disfavored on evolutionary grounds. The system's
    low eccentricity ($e=0.122\pm 0.003$) disfavors dynamical
    formation channels and implies that the neutron star formed with
    very little mass loss ($\lesssim 1\,M_{\odot}$) and with a weak
    natal kick ($v_{\rm kick}\lesssim 10\,\rm km\,s^{-1}$). The
    current orbit is too small to have accommodated the neutron star
    progenitor as a red supergiant or super-AGB star. The simplest
    formation scenario -- isolated binary evolution -- requires the
    system to have survived stable mass transfer or common envelope
    evolution with a donor-to-accretor mass ratio $>10$. The system,
    which we call Gaia NS1, is likely a progenitor of symbiotic X-ray
    binaries and long-period millisecond pulsars. Its discovery
    challenges binary evolution models and bodes well for Gaia's
    census of compact objects in wide binarie

Comments: 19 pages, 11 figures, submitted to OJAp
Subjects: Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR)
Cite as:  arXiv:2402.06722 [astro-ph.SR]
          (or arXiv:2402.06722v1 [astro-ph.SR] for this version)

Submission history

From: Kareem El-Badry [view email]
[v1] Fri, 9 Feb 2024 19:00:01 UTC (1,025 KB)
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