Search for: All records

Creators/Authors contains: "Maccarone, Thomas J"

Note: When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
What is a DOI Number?

Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from this site.

  1. ABSTRACT We present the deepest and highest-resolution radio continuum imaging of the Galactic globular cluster Terzan 5, one of the most crowded locations in the radio sky. In these new 2–4 GHz Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array images, we detect 38 of the 49 confirmed pulsars, including extensive multi-frequency eclipse mapping of the luminous redback Ter5A. Nonetheless, there is still a large amount of diffuse residual flux from pulsars that are fainter than our 2.5 GHz continuum detection limit of $$\sim 11\, \mu$$Jy. Using a range of approaches including image-based simulations, we model the fluxes of the detected pulsars together with the residual flux. We find a minimum total population of $$N\sim 250$$ detectable pulsars in Terzan 5 and perhaps substantially more, though the luminosity function remains very uncertain. Consideration of the $$\gamma$$-ray properties of the cluster, though also not unambiguous to interpret, leads to consistent conclusions. These pulsar population estimates are larger than inferred from previous work and highlight Terzan 5 as a keystone target for next-generation radio facilities. 
    more » « less
    Free, publicly-accessible full text available March 3, 2027
  2. ABSTRACT We present the discoveries of two of AM CVn systems, Gaia14aae and SDSS J080449.49+161624.8, which show X-ray pulsations at their orbital periods, indicative of magnetically collimated accretion. Both also show indications of higher rates of mass transfer relative to the expectations from binary evolution driven purely by gravitational radiation, based on existing optical data for Gaia14aae, which show a hotter white dwarf temperature than expected from standard evolutionary models, and X-ray data for SDSS J080449.49+161624.8 which show a luminosity 10−100 times higher than those for other AM CVn at similar orbital periods. The higher mass transfer rates could be driven by magnetic braking from the disc wind interacting with the magnetosphere of the tidally locked accretor. We discuss implications of this additional angular momentum transport mechanism for evolution and gravitational wave detectability of AM CVn objects. 
    more » « less
  3. ABSTRACT Radio emission has been detected from tens of white dwarfs, in particular in accreting systems. Additionally, radio emission has been predicted as a possible outcome of a planetary system around a white dwarf. We searched for 3 GHz radio continuum emission in 846 000 candidate white dwarfs previously identified in Gaia using the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS) Epoch 1 Quick Look Catalogue. We identified 13 candidate white dwarfs with a counterpart in VLASS within 2 arcsec. Five of those were found not to be white dwarfs in follow-up or archival spectroscopy, whereas seven others were found to be chance alignments with a background source in higher resolution optical or radio images. The remaining source, WDJ204259.71+152108.06, is found to be a white dwarf and M-dwarf binary with an orbital period of 4.1 d and long-term stochastic optical variability, as well as luminous radio and X-ray emission. For this binary, we find no direct evidence of a background contaminant, and a chance alignment probability of only ≈2 per cent. However, other evidence points to the possibility of an unfortunate chance alignment with a background radio and X-ray emitting quasar, including an unusually poor Gaia DR3 astrometric solution for this source. With at most one possible radio emitting white dwarf found, we conclude that strong (≳1–3 mJy) radio emission from white dwarfs in the 3 GHz band is virtually non-existent outside of interacting binaries. 
    more » « less
  4. null (Ed.)
    ABSTRACT Transitional millisecond pulsars are millisecond pulsars that switch between a rotation-powered millisecond pulsar state and an accretion-powered X-ray binary state, and are thought to be an evolutionary stage between neutron star low-mass X-ray binaries and millisecond pulsars. So far, only three confirmed systems have been identified in addition to a handful of candidates. We present the results of a multiwavelength study of the low-mass X-ray binary NGC 6652B in the globular cluster NGC 6652, including simultaneous radio and X-ray observations taken by the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array and the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and optical spectroscopy and photometry. This source is the second brightest X-ray source in NGC 6652 ($$L_{\textrm {X}}\sim 1.8 \times 10^{34}{\, \mathrm{erg\, s}^{-1}}$$) and is known to be variable. We observe several X-ray flares over the duration of our X-ray observations, in addition to persistent radio emission and occasional radio flares. Simultaneous radio and X-ray data show no clear evidence of anticorrelated variability. Optical spectra of NGC 6652B indicate variable, broad H α emission that transitions from double-peaked emission to absorption over a time-scale of hours. We consider a variety of possible explanations for the source behaviour, and conclude that based on the radio and X-ray luminosities, short time-scale variability and X-ray flaring, and optical spectra, NGC 6652B is best explained as a transitional millisecond pulsar candidate that displays prolonged X-ray flaring behaviour. However, this could only be confirmed with observations of a change to the rotation-powered millisecond pulsar state. 
    more » « less