[SN, SNR, and Isolated NS -- Oral ]
Deep Chandra Studies of Millisecond Pulsars in Globular Clusters
Slavko Bogdanov, McGill University
Jonathan E. Grindlay (Harvard)
The unprecedented sub-arcsecond angular resolution of the
Chandra X-ray Observatory has proven to be ideally suited for studies of
globular clusters, where "recycled" millisecond pulsars are found in
great abundance. Deep observations of 47 Tuc, NGC 6397, and M28, totaling
over 1 Ms of combined exposure, have greatly improved our understanding
of the X-ray properties of these objects. In particular, these surveys
have revealed that most millisecond pulsars exhibit faint, soft thermal
emission from their heated magnetic polar caps, while "black widow" and
the peculiar dynamically exchanged binary millisecond pulsars exhibit
synchrotron X-rays due to interaction of their relativistic winds with a
close binary partner. I will present the results of our X-ray studies of
the Galactic population of millisecond pulsars, which offer unique
insight into binary evolution, internal globular cluster dynamics,
pulsar winds, collisionless shock, and the neutron star equation of
state.