Timing and noise analysis of five millisecond pulsars observed with MeerKAT
ABSTRACT Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in binary systems are precise laboratories for tests of gravity and the physics of dense matter. Their orbits can show relativistic effects that provide a measurement of the neutron star mass and the pulsars are included in timing array experiments that search for gravitational waves. Neutron star mass measurements are key to eventually solving the neutron star equation of state and these can be obtained by a measure of the Shapiro delay if the orbit is viewed near edge-on. Here, we report on the timing and noise analysis of five MSPs observed with the MeerKAT radio telescope: PSRs J0900–3144, J0921–5202, J1216–6410, J1327–0755, and J1543–5149. We searched for the Shapiro delay in all of the pulsars and obtain weak detections for PSRs J0900–3144, J1216–6410, and J1327–0755. We report a higher significance detection of the Shapiro delay for PSR J1543–5149, giving a precise pulsar mass of $M_{\rm p} = 1.349^{+0.043}_{-0.061}\,$M$_\odot$ and companion white-dwarf mass $M_{\rm c} = 0.223^{+0.005}_{-0.007}$ M$_\odot$. This is an atypically low-mass measurement for a recycled MSP. In addition to these Shapiro delays, we also obtain timing model parameters including proper motions and parallax constraints for most of the pulsars.
Authors
- M. Krämer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7615-7499)
- C. F. Okany
- R. M. Shannon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7285-6348)
- Daniel J. Reardon (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2035-4688)
- Sambatra Andrianomena (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5957-0719)
- Mohsen Shamohammadi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3977-708X)
- Eugene Anibe Idogbe
- Marisa Geyer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2822-1919)
- Federico Abbate (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9791-7661)
- V. Venkatraman Krishnan (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9518-9819)
- Azam Che Idris (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0172-0205)
- Sigrid Shilunga
- Ugochukwu C. Enwelum
- M. Chisabi
- E. G. Gasennelwe
Institutions
- University of Nigeria (NG)
- Australian Research Council (AU)
- University of Botswana (BW)
- University of Cape Town (ZA)
- University of Namibia (NA)
- Copperbelt University (ZM)
- National Space Research and Development Agency (NG)
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (AU)
- National Space Agency (MY)
- Osservatorio Astronomico di Cagliari (IT)
- Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (DE)
- Swinburne University of Technology (AU)
- University of the Western Cape (ZA)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Published
- 2025-02-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/staf100
- Citations
- 3
- Primary Topic
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.46
Funders
- National Research Foundation
- Swinburne University of Technology
- Max-Planck-Gesellschaft