Has the Sun a companion star?

Abstract

PULSARS are accurate timekeepers. They are believed to be rotating neutron stars, with strong magnetic fields, and the energy they radiate is at the expense of their rotational kinetic energy1. As each pulsar ages, its period P (relative to the Solar System barycentre) slowly increases, and its period derivative P( = dP/dt) slowly decreases. Certain interesting pulsars (displayed in Table 1) have anomalously small period derivatives, and rather surprisingly, are found grouped together in the same region of the sky (shown in Fig. 1). I suggest here, as an explanation of the peculiar properties of these pulsars, that the barycentre of the Solar System is accelerated, possibly because the Sun is a member of a binary system and has a hitherto undetected companion star.