NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2013A-0005
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2013A-0005 |
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PI: Roger Romani, Stanford University, rwr@astro.stanford.edu
Address: Department of Physics, Stanford, CA, 94305-4060, USA
CoI: Alexei Filippenko, UC Berkeley (Astronomy)
CoI: S. Bradley Cenko, UC Berkeley (Astronomy)
Title: Weighing the Most Extreme Black Widow
Abstract:
The recently discovered black widow pulsar J1311-3430 solves a 20 year
mystery, explaining an unidentified gamma-ray source. This system has the
shortest orbital period of any pulsar, a unique 0.01Msun He-dominated
companion and a very powerful evaporating pulsar wind. Our exploratory Keck
LRIS spectra show that the neutron star is extremely massive. Our proposed
GMOS-S campaign measures the companion photosphere heating, probes the pulsar
wind stripping and weighs the neutron star. If as massive as the initial data
suggest, this is a fundamental physics result presenting strong constrains on
the dense matter equation of state.
National Optical Astronomy Observatory, 950 North Cherry Avenue, P.O. Box 26732, Tucson, Arizona 85726, Phone: (520) 318-8000, Fax: (520) 318-8360
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NOAO > Observing Info > Approved Programs > 2013A-0005 |
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