Testing the accretion-induced field-decay and spin-up model for recycled pulsars

Abstract

Millisecond radio pulsars have long been proposed to form from a spin-up recycling process in a binary system. In this paper, we demonstrate that the accretion-induced field-decay and spin-up model for recycled pulsars can indeed produce these millisecond pulsars with relatively weak magnetic fields of 10 8-10 9 G and short spin periods of a few milliseconds. Our results also suggest that the value of the currently observed highest spin frequency of millisecond pulsars may simply depend on the amount of mass available for accretion. © 2012 ESO.