Formation of millisecond pulsars with long orbital periods by accretion-induced collapse of white dwarfs

Abstract

ABSTRACT Accretion-induced collapse (AIC) of massive white dwarfs (WDs) has been proposed as an important way for the formation of neutron star (NS) systems. An oxygen-neon (ONe) WD that accretes H-rich material from a red-giant (RG) star may experience the AIC process, eventually producing millisecond pulsars (MSPs), known as the RG donor channel. Previous studies indicate that this channel can only account for MSPs with orbital periods $\gt 500\, \rm d$. It is worth noting that some more MSPs with wide orbits ($60\!-\!500\, \rm d$) have been detected by recent observations, but their origin is still highly uncertain. In this work, by employing an adiabatic power-law assumptions for the mass-transfer process, we performed a large number of complete binary evolution calculations for the formation of MSPs through the RG donor channel in a systematic way. We found that this channel can contribute to the observed MSPs with orbital periods in the range of $50\!-\!1200\, {\rm d}$, and almost all the observed MSPs with wide orbits can be covered by this channel in the WD companion mass versus orbital period diagram. This work indicates that the AIC process provides a viable way to form MSPs with wide orbits.