A new likely pulsar binary in 47 Tucanae from continuum searches

Abstract We present evidence that the X-ray source 47 Tuc W41, long considered to be an X-ray source powered by coronal activity, is actually a redback pulsar binary. The source continually shows L X = 3 × 10 31 erg s −1 (0.5–10 keV), which is well in excess of the coronal saturation limit for active binaries in quiescence, but is consistent with the intrabinary shock observed in redback pulsars, as is its photon index of Γ = 1.4 ± 0.1. In addition, using deep data from the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we show that W41 is a faint (9.8 ± 1.4 μ Jy at 5.5 GHz) steep spectrum ( α = −1.8 ± 0.4) radio continuum source, as expected for a pulsar. Light curve modelling of Hubble Space Telescope photometry shows evidence for ellipsoidal modulation with mild irradiation of a ∼ 0.5–0.55M ⊙ secondary around an invisible companion, also consistent with the redback interpretation. The precise position of W41, along with its well-measured 10.4-hr orbital period, should enable it to be matched to a newly-discovered radio pulsar in future data. Our result shows that close pulsar binaries are still hiding, misclassified among active binaries, even in well-studied clusters like 47 Tuc.