| Description: | Recently the PALFA team, which includes ASTRON scientists Jason Hessels and Joeri van Leeuwen, discovered a new double neutron star (DNS) system, PSR J1946+2052, using Arecibo. As described in the paper led by Kevin Stovall (2018, ApJ 854, 225), The pulsar spins every 17 ms, and is in a 1.88 hr orbit around another neutron star. Because we used a new phase binning mode on the JVLA to localize the pulsar to a precision of 0."09, pulsar timing could quickly determine its magnetic field strength at the surface is low. Indeed, this pulsar is the recycled (not the young) pulsar in the DNS.
Among all known radio pulsars in DNS systems, PSR J1946+2052 has the shortest orbital period. Because of this close orbit, the system emits a lot of gravitational waves. Its current mean GW luminosity is the largest of any known DNS: ~13% of the overall electromagnetic output of the Sun! This DNS has the shortest known estimated merger timescale, of only 46 Myr. |
