Abstract
A millisecond pulsar may be able to evaporate a very light companion by a particular component of its energetic radiation1–3. Pulsar turn-on in the binary follows a stage of mass transfer in a very low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB), dominated by an evaporative wind from the surface of a very light, at least partially degenerate companion1. The wind is driven by a large MeV γ-ray flux powered by an accretion dynamo. That source of irradiation ceases when it is replaced by that from the millisecond pulsar, which has been spun up by accretion. We apply this model to the recently discovered4 1.6-ms pulsar PSR1957 + 20.
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Kluźniak, W., Ruderman, M., Shaham, J. et al. Nature and evolution of the eclipsing millisecond binary pulsar PSR1957 + 20. Nature 334, 225–227 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/334225a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/334225a0
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