Abstract
Fruchter et al.1 have recently announced the discovery of a 1.6-millisecond pulsar, 1957 + 20, in a 9.2-hour eclipsing binary system and have proposed that the eclipses are due to a pulsar-excited wind derived from its ∼0.024 M⊙ companion. Here we argue that the companion is a stripped, degenerate hydrogen core being ablated by the pulsar, a process that will be complete in ≲108 yr, leaving an isolated millisecond pulsar like 1937 + 21. This interpretation can be tested both by using the pulsar pulses to perform radio soundings of the interface between the two winds, and by future optical, X-ray and γ-ray observations. Our evolutionary model for this object predicts that there should be no hydrogen-rich, low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXB) with orbital periods ≲5 hours.
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Phinney, E., Evans, C., Blandford, R. et al. Ablating dwarf model for eclipsing millisecond pulsar 1957 + 20. Nature 333, 832–834 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/333832a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/333832a0
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