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Issue A&A Volume 409, Number 3, October III 2003 Page(s) L31 - L34 Section Letters DOI 10.1051/0004-6361:20031339

A&A 409, L31-L34 (2003)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20031339

Letter

Optical identification of the companion to PSR J1911-5958A, the pulsar binary in the outskirts of NGC 6752

C. G. Bassa¹, F. Verbunt¹, M. H. van Kerkwijk² and L. Homer<sup>3

1</sup>  Astronomical Institute, Utrecht University, PO Box 80 000, 3508 TA Utrecht, The Netherlands
²  Dept. of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Univ. of Toronto, 60 St. George Street, Toronto, ON M5S 3H8, Canada
³  Dept. of Astronomy, Univ. of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195-1580, USA

(Received 17 July 2003 / Accepted 1 September 2003)

Abstract
We report on the identification of the optical counterpart of the binary millisecond pulsar PSR J1911-5958A, located in the outskirts of the globular cluster NGC 6752. At the position of the pulsar we find an object with V=22.08, B-V=0.38, U-B=-0.49. The object is blue with respect to the cluster main sequence by 0.8 mag in B-V. We argue that the object is the white dwarf companion of the pulsar. Comparison with white dwarf cooling models shows that this magnitude and colors are consistent with a low-mass white dwarf at the distance of NGC 6752. If associated with NGC 6752, the white dwarf is relatively young, Gyr, which sets constraints on the formation of the binary and its ejection from the core of the globular cluster.

Key words: pulsars: individual: PSR J1911-5958A -- globular clusters: individual: NGC 6752 -- stars: neutron -- stars: white dwarfs

Offprint request: C. G. Bassa, c.g.bassa@astro.uu.nl

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