Modes in Transitional Millisecond Pulsars: Evidence of Pulsar Wind-Induced Disk Heating from GRMHD and Radiative Transfer
过渡毫秒脉冲星中的模式:来自广义相对论磁流体力学与辐射转移的星风驱动盘加热证据
Transitional millisecond pulsars (tMSPs) alternate between radio and X-ray pulsar states, and can represent the missing link between rotation- and accretion-powered neutron stars. Their disk state switches stochastically between the low and high X-ray modes, both of unknown physical origin and less luminous than low-mass X-ray binaries. To reveal the source of the X-ray emission, we carry out 2D axisymmetric general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the interaction between an accretion disk and tMSP magnetosphere. For the first time, we post-process tMSP simulations with a radiative transfer code that incorporates thermal synchrotron, absorption, and Compton scattering processes. By varying the disk density, hence the inflow rate, we explore two disk regimes: one truncated outside and another inside the light cylinder. In the former, most of the X-ray flux comes from the synchrotron emission powered by the wind heating the disk: this "wind" regime could correspond to the high X-ray mode. The latter is the propeller regime and lacks this heating process. However, the propeller episodically expels the disk, activating the wind heating: a 70%-30% mixture of such propeller and wind regimes reproduces the X-ray spectrum of the low X-ray mode. The excess electromagnetic torque in the propeller regime increases the spin-down rate, averaged over both modes, by a few percent above the disk-free radio pulsar state, in agreement with observations. Overall, the system is more luminous in X-rays when the flow is truncated outside the light cylinder and supports a contribution from wind-induced disk heating in both low and high X-ray modes.
展开 ▾首次将GRMHD与含热同步辐射、吸收和逆康普顿散射的辐射转移结合,模拟tMSP两种盘截断状态,并用星风加热盘再现了高低X射线模式光谱。
过渡毫秒脉冲星作为转动供能与吸积供能中子星之间的桥梁,其高低X射线模式转换的物理起源一直不明确。过去研究多基于唯象模型或单纯磁流体模拟,缺乏自洽的辐射计算。本研究通过二维轴对称广义相对论磁流体模拟并首次后处理辐射转移,发现当盘截断于光柱外时,星风加热盘产生的同步辐射可主导X射线流量,对应高模式;而螺旋桨模式导致盘抛射,间歇性触发星风加热,可解释低模式。该方法为理解脉冲星-吸积盘相互作用提供了新框架,未来可扩展至三维模拟并考虑更真实的热过程,有望揭示喷流形成等问题。