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Issue A&A Volume 407, Number 2, August IV 2003 Page(s) L25 - L28 Section Letters DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20031055

A&A 407, L25-L28 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20031055

Letter

An accretion disk model for periodic timing variations of pulsars

G. J. Qiao, Y. Q. Xue, R. X. Xu, H. G. Wang and B. W. Xiao

Department of Astronomy, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, PR China
    e-mail: bxyq@vega.bac.pku.edu.cn
(Received 12 March 2003 / Accepted 23 June 2003 )

Abstract
The long-term, highly periodic and correlated variations in both the pulse shape and the rate of slow-down of two isolated pulsars (PSRs) PSR B1828-11 and PSR B1642-03 were discovered recently. This phenomenon may provide evidence for "free precession" as suggested in the literature. Some authors presented various kinds of models to explain this phenomenon within the framework of free precession. Here we present an accretion disk model for this precession phenomenon instead. Under reasonable parameters, the observed phenomenon can be explained by an isolated pulsar with a fossil disk. This may link radio pulsars and anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and present an indirect evidence for the existence of the fossil disk in nature.

Key words: stars: neutron -- accretion, accretion disks

Offprint request: G. J. Qiao, gjn@pku.edu.cn

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