Xiaojin Liu (Beijing Normal University)

Xiaojin Liu Colloquium: A Bayesian study of the spin-up process of millisecond pulsars

Marsfield

Abstract

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are one of the fastest-spinning objects in the Universe. They are usually believed to attain their fast spin via an accretion process that transfers angular momentum from their companions to the neutron stars, though the spin-up process remains mysterious and is usually not given with much detail in the literature. The accretion theories, however, do predict a simple relation constraining the spin period and its time derivative, i.e. the so-called spin-up line. Studying the spin-up line will reveal some secrets of the accretion process and probably shed light on finding the fastest spinning pulsars, including a sub-ms one. In this talk, I will present our study of the spin-up line using an MSP population. I will show the hierarchical Bayesian method we used and discuss the interesting results we found.