Chandra and HST studies of six millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster M13

Abstract

ABSTRACT We analyse 55 ks of Chandra X-ray observations of the Galactic globular cluster (GC) M13. Using the latest radio timing positions of six known millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in M13 from Wang et al. (2020), we detect confident X-ray counterparts to five of the six MSPs at X-ray luminosities of LX(0.3–8 keV)∼3 × 1030–1031 erg s−1, including the newly discovered PSR J1641+3627F. There are limited X-ray counts at the position of PSR J1641+3627A, for which we obtain an upper limit LX < 1.3 × 1030 erg s−1. We analyse X-ray spectra of all six MSPs, which are well described by either a single blackbody (BB) or a single power-law model. We also incorporate optical/UV imaging observations from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and find optical counterparts to PSR J1641+3627D and J1641+3627F. Our colour–magnitude diagrams indicate the latter contains a white dwarf, consistent with the properties suggested by radio timing observations. The counterpart to J1641+3627D is only visible in the V band; however, we argue that the companion to J1641+3627D is also a white dwarf, since we see a BB-like X-ray spectrum, while MSPs with non-degenerate companions generally show non-thermal X-rays from shocks between the pulsar and companion winds. Our work increases the sample of known X-ray and optical counterparts of MSPs in GCs.