Double pulsar system J0737-039 and its low-frequency observations with GMRT

Abstract

The recent discovery of two radio pulsars, with periods of 23 ms and 2.8 s, in a tight 2.4 hour highly relativistic double neutron star binary, is one of the most significant discoveries of pulsar astronomy (Burgay et al. 2003; Lyne et al. 2004). The sharp pulses of the millisecond pulsar, the detection of its long period companion as a pulsar and an almost edge-on orbit make this system a unique laboratory for relativistic physics. The line of sight to the millisecond pulsar passes through the magnetosphere of the long period pulsar giving a unique probe of the pulsar magnetosphere. The relatively small separation between the two pulsars, a 17o per year advance in its angle of periastron and a mild eccentricity leads to a varying interaction between the pulsars, observed as a rich phenomenology in their emission. The status of research on this system since its discovery is reviewed and its low frequency observations using Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) are described in this paper.