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.
|