Astronomers determine the origin of the black widow pulsating stars
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences have determined the origin of Black Widow pulsars using ultra-tiny X-ray binaries (UCXBs).
Black widows are ancient radio pulsars with a rotation period of less than 30 m/s. Often, stars associated with these pulsars lose matter due to radiation.
Scientists concluded that the black widow could be an evolutionary link between X-ray pulsars and isolated pulsars in milliseconds.
The black widow can be divided into two subspecies: the first has companions with masses in the range 0.01-0.05 solar masses, and the second companion has masses ≤ 0.01 solar masses. If scientists explain the origin of the first subtype by pulsar radiation that evaporates ordinary stars, then the origin of the second remains a mystery.
According to the hypothesis put forward by Chinese scientists, the presence of “black widows” with a concomitant mass ≤ 0.01 M☉ can be explained by UCXBs.
To further reproduce the characteristics of the black widow, they took into account the various input parameters of the original models. The characteristics of the “black widow” can be reproduced using the appropriate evaporation efficiency and initial spin periods of the neutron star.
In the course of the analysis, scientists have found that Type 2 black widows are possible ancestors of isolated millisecond stars.
