articleScienceApr 25, 2013GREEN OA

A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary

JAJohn AntoniadisPCP. C. C. FreireNWNorbert WexTMThomas M. TaurisRSRyan S. Lynch

Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy · McGill University · +13 more institutions

Indexed inarxivcrossref

Abstract

Pulsar Tests Gravity Because of their extremely high densities, massive neutron stars can be used to test gravity. Based on spectroscopy of its white dwarf companion, Antoniadis et al. (p. 448 ) identified a millisecond pulsar as a neutron star twice as heavy as the Sun. The observed binary's orbital decay is consistent with that predicted by general relativity, ruling out previously untested strong-field phenomena predicted by alternative theories. The binary system has a peculiar combination of properties and poses a challenge to our understanding of stellar evolution.

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Topics
Keywords
  • Pulsar
  • Binary pulsar
  • Binary number
  • Physics
  • Astrophysics
  • Astronomy
  • Millisecond pulsar
  • Mathematics
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