TY - JOUR
T1 - Possibility of detecting moons of pulsar planets through time-of-arrival analysis
AU - Lewis, Karen M.
AU - Sackett, Penny D.
AU - Mardling, Rosemary A.
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - The perturbation caused by planet-moon binarity on the time-of-arrival signal of a pulsar with an orbiting planet is derived for the case in which the orbits of the moon and the planet-moon barycenter are both circular and coplanar. The signal consists of two sinusoids with frequency (2n p-3nb) and (2np-nb), where np and nb are the mean motions of the planet and moon around their barycenter, and the planet-moon system around the host, respectively. The amplitude of the signal is the fraction sin I [9(MpMm)/16(Mp + M m)2][r/R]5 of the system crossing time R/c, where Mp and Mm are the masses of the planet and moon, r is their orbital separation, R is the distance between the host pulsar and planet-moon barycenter, I is the inclination of the orbital plane of the planet, and c is the speed of light. The analysis is applied to the case of PSR B1620-26b, a pulsar planet, to constrain the orbital separation and mass of any possible moons. We find that a stable moon orbiting this pulsar planet could be detected, if its mass were >5% of its planet's mass, and if the planet-moon distance were-2% of the planet-pulsar separation.
AB - The perturbation caused by planet-moon binarity on the time-of-arrival signal of a pulsar with an orbiting planet is derived for the case in which the orbits of the moon and the planet-moon barycenter are both circular and coplanar. The signal consists of two sinusoids with frequency (2n p-3nb) and (2np-nb), where np and nb are the mean motions of the planet and moon around their barycenter, and the planet-moon system around the host, respectively. The amplitude of the signal is the fraction sin I [9(MpMm)/16(Mp + M m)2][r/R]5 of the system crossing time R/c, where Mp and Mm are the masses of the planet and moon, r is their orbital separation, R is the distance between the host pulsar and planet-moon barycenter, I is the inclination of the orbital plane of the planet, and c is the speed of light. The analysis is applied to the case of PSR B1620-26b, a pulsar planet, to constrain the orbital separation and mass of any possible moons. We find that a stable moon orbiting this pulsar planet could be detected, if its mass were >5% of its planet's mass, and if the planet-moon distance were-2% of the planet-pulsar separation.
KW - General
KW - Individual (PSR b1620-26)
KW - Oscillations
KW - Planetary systems
KW - Pulsars
KW - Stars
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67649647525&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1086/592743
DO - 10.1086/592743
M3 - Article
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 685
SP - L153-L156
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2 PART 2
ER -