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Binary Pulsar J0737-3039: Evidence for a new core collapse and neutron star formation mechanism

The binary pulsar J0737-3039 is the only known system having two observable pulsars, thus offering a unique laboratory to test general relativity and explore pulsar physics. Based on the low eccentricity and the position within the galactic plane, Piran & Shaviv (2004, 2005) argued that pulsar B had a non-standard formation scenario with little or no mass ejection. They have also predicted that the system would have a very slow proper motion. Pulsar timing measurements (Kramer et al. 2006; Deller et al. 2009) confirmed this prediction. The recent observations of the alignment between the spin of pulsar A and the binary orbit is also in agreement with this scenario. Detailed simulations of the formation process of pulsar B enable us to show that its progenitor, just before the collapse, was a massive O-Ne-Mg white dwarf surrounded by a tenuous, 0.1-0.16 M_sun, envelope. This envelope was ejected when the white dwarf collapsed to form a neutron star. Pulsar B was born as a slow rotator (spin period ~ 1 s) and a kick received when the pulsar formed changed its spin direction to the current one. This realization sheds light on the angular momentum evolution of the progenitor star, a process which is strongly affected by interaction with the binary companion. The slow proper motion of the system also implies that the system must have undergone a phase of mass transfer in which Star A shed a significant fraction of its mass onto B.