“Eclipses and Orbital Modulation in Binary Pulsar PSR J0737-3039A/B”
Thursday September 21, 2006
Professor Maxim Lyutikov
Purdue University
The long awaited discovery of the binary radio pulsar system, PSR J0737-3039A/B, surpassed most expectations, both theoretical and observational, as a tool to probe general relativity, stellar evolution and pulsar theories. Unexpectedly, the faster pulsar A is eclipsed once per orbit while the slower pulsar B shows orbital-dependent variations of intensity. I will describe a simple model of eclipses which reproduces the complicated observed light curve down to intricate details and proves the long standing assumption of dipolar magnetic fields of neutron stars.