Formation of the Galactic Millisecond Pulsar Triple System PSR J0337+1715 - a Neutron Star with Two Orbiting White Dwarfs

Understand

The millisecond pulsar in a triple system (PSR J0337+1715, recently discovered by Ransom et al.) is an unusual neutron star with two orbiting white dwarfs.

• The existence of such a system in the Galactic field poses new challenges to stellar astrophysics for understanding evolution, interactions and mass-transfer in close multiple stellar systems.
• In addition, this system provides the first precise confirmation for a very wide-orbit system of the white dwarf mass-orbital period relation.
• Here we present a self-consistent, semi-analytical solution to the formation of PSR J0337+1715.