Astron. Astrophys. 358, L53-L54 (2000)

Letter to the Editor

A follow-up optical investigation of the binary pulsar PSR J1811-1736

R.P. Mignani

ESO, Karl Schwarzchild Strasse 2, 85740 Garching bei München, Germany (rmignani@eso.org)

Received 3 May 2000 / Accepted 15 May 2000

Abstract

PSR J1811-1736 (P = 104 ms) is a binary pulsar in a highly eccentric orbit (= 18.8 d) around an unidentified companion. Here, an optical follow-up investigation of the pulsar field, performed using photographic plates from the UK-SERC Equatorial red survey, is reported. No object is detected at the pulsar position down to . At the pulsar distance of 6 kpc, this implies, for a likely value of (), an absolute magnitude for the companion star. Although the present upper limit is deep enough to rule out a red giant, it still leaves open the possibility of a main sequence star or a red dwarf companion. Deeper optical observations are thus required to investigate the presence of white dwarf or a neutron star.

Key words: stars: pulsars: individual: PSR J1811-1736 stars: binaries: general

SIMBAD Objects

Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 2. Optical observations
• 3. Conclusions
• Acknowledgements
• References

© European Southern Observatory (ESO) 2000

Online publication: June 8, 2000
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