A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple

Kevin B Burdge; Thomas R Marsh; Jim Fuller; Eric C Bellm; Ilaria Caiazzo; Deepto Chakrabarty; Michael W Coughlin; Kishalay De; V S Dhillon; Matthew J Graham; Pablo Rodríguez-Gil; Amruta D Jaodand; David L Kaplan; Erin Kara; Albert K H Kong; S R Kulkarni; Kwan-Lok Li; S P Littlefair; Walid A Majid; Przemek Mróz; Aaron B Pearlman; E S Phinney; Jan van Roestel; Robert A Simcoe; Igor Andreoni; Andrew J Drake; Richard G Dekany; Dmitry A Duev; Erik C Kool; Ashish A Mahabal; Michael S Medford; Reed Riddle; Thomas A Prince

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-04551-1

A 62-minute orbital period black widow binary in a wide hierarchical triple

Nature. 2022 May;605(7908):41-45. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04551-1. Epub 2022 May 4.

Authors

Kevin B Burdge^{1

2}, Thomas R Marsh³, Jim Fuller^{4

5}, Eric C Bellm⁶, Ilaria Caiazzo^{4

5}, Deepto Chakrabarty^{7

8}, Michael W Coughlin⁹, Kishalay De⁸, V S Dhillon^{10

11}, Matthew J Graham⁴, Pablo Rodríguez-Gil^{11

12}, Amruta D Jaodand⁴, David L Kaplan¹³, Erin Kara^{7

8}, Albert K H Kong¹⁴, S R Kulkarni⁴, Kwan-Lok Li¹⁵, S P Littlefair¹⁰, Walid A Majid^{4

16}, Przemek Mróz^{4

17}, Aaron B Pearlman^{4

18

19}, E S Phinney^{4

5}, Jan van Roestel⁴, Robert A Simcoe^{7

8}, Igor Andreoni^{20

21

22}, Andrew J Drake⁴, Richard G Dekany²³, Dmitry A Duev^{4

24}, Erik C Kool²⁵, Ashish A Mahabal^{4

26}, Michael S Medford^{27

28}, Reed Riddle²³, Thomas A Prince⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. kburdge@mit.edu.
² Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA. kburdge@mit.edu.
³ Department of Physics, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
⁴ Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁵ TAPIR, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
⁶ DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA.
⁷ Department of Physics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁸ Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA.
⁹ School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK.
¹¹ Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, La Laguna, Spain.
¹² Departamento de Astrofísica, Universidad de La Laguna, La Laguna, Spain.
¹³ Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, USA.
¹⁴ Institute of Astronomy, National Tsing Hua University, Hsinchu, Taiwan.
¹⁵ Department of Physics, National Cheng Kung University, Tainan, Taiwan.
¹⁶ Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
¹⁷ Astronomical Observatory, University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland.
¹⁸ Department of Physics, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
¹⁹ McGill Space Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
²⁰ Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
²¹ Department of Astronomy, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
²² Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, USA.
²³ Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁴ Weights & Biases, San Francisco, CA, USA.
²⁵ The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁶ Center for Data-Driven Discovery, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, USA.
²⁷ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA, USA.
²⁸ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA.

PMID: 35508781
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04551-1

Abstract

Over a dozen millisecond pulsars are ablating low-mass companions in close binary systems. In the original 'black widow', the eight-hour orbital period eclipsing pulsar PSR J1959+2048 (PSR B1957+20)¹, high-energy emission originating from the pulsar² is irradiating and may eventually destroy³ a low-mass companion. These systems are not only physical laboratories that reveal the interesting results of exposing a close companion star to the relativistic energy output of a pulsar, but are also believed to harbour some of the most massive neutron stars⁴, allowing for robust tests of the neutron star equation of state. Here we report observations of ZTF J1406+1222, a wide hierarchical triple hosting a 62-minute orbital period black widow candidate, the optical flux of which varies by a factor of more than ten. ZTF J1406+1222 pushes the boundaries of evolutionary models⁵, falling below the 80-minute minimum orbital period of hydrogen-rich systems. The wide tertiary companion is a rare low-metallicity cool subdwarf star, and the system has a Galactic halo orbit consistent with passing near the Galactic Centre, making it a probe of formation channels, neutron star kick physics⁶ and binary evolution.

Publication types

Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't