On possible implications of orbital parallaxes of wide orbit binary pulsars and their measurability

Abstract

A complete theoretical description of the parallactic terms in the timing formula for a binary pulsar is presented. It is shown that the terms depend not only on the annual motion of Earth but also on the orbital motion of the binary pulsar as well. It is proved that measurements of the effect of orbital parallax can serve a useful purpose, both in determination of pulsar distances, and also in the measurement of companion masses. Estimates of expected magnitudes of the corresponding timing signals for the most appropriate binary pulsar candidates are tabulated, and prospects for the measurement of orbital parallaxes are discussed.