Long-term observations of the pulsars in 47 Tucanae. I. A study of four elusive binary systems

Understand

For the past couple of decades, the Parkes radio telescope has been regularly observing the millisecond pulsars in 47 Tucanae (47 Tuc).

• This long-term timing program was designed to address a wide range of scientific issues related to these pulsars and the globular cluster where they are located.
• In this paper, the first of a series, we address one of these objectives: the characterization of four previously known binary pulsars for which no precise orbital parameters were known, namely 47 Tuc P, V, W and X (pulsars 47 Tuc R and Y are discussed elsewhere).
• We determined the previously unknown orbital parameters of 47 Tuc V and X and greatly improved those of 47 Tuc P and W.