Published in

American Astronomical Society, Astrophysical Journal Letters, 1(931), p. L3, 2022

DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac6b35

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Is the Black-widow Pulsar PSR J1555–2908 in a Hierarchical Triple System?

This paper is made freely available by the publisher.
This paper is made freely available by the publisher.

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Preprint: archiving forbidden
Red circle
Postprint: archiving forbidden
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Published version: archiving allowed
Data provided by SHERPA/RoMEO

Abstract

Abstract The 559 Hz black-widow pulsar PSR J1555−2908, originally discovered in radio, is also a bright gamma-ray pulsar. Timing its pulsations using 12 yr of Fermi-Large Area Telescope gamma-ray data reveals long-term variations in its spin frequency that are much larger than is observed from other millisecond pulsars. While this variability in the pulsar rotation rate could be intrinsic “timing noise,” here we consider an alternative explanation: the variations arise from the presence of a very-low-mass third object in a wide multiyear orbit around the neutron star and its low-mass companion. With current data, this hierarchical-triple-system model describes the pulsar’s rotation slightly more accurately than the best-fitting timing noise model. Future observations will show if this alternative explanation is correct.