Low braking index of PSR J1734−3333: an interaction between fall-back disc and magnetic field?

Abstract

Abstract Recent timing observation reported that the radio pulsar PSR J1734−3333 with a rotating period P = 1.17 s is slowing down with a period derivative $\dot{P}=2.28\times 10^{-12}\ \rm s\,s^{-1}$. Its derived braking index n = 0.9 ± 0.2 is the lowest value among young radio pulsars with the measured braking indices. In this Letter, we attempt to investigate the influence of the braking torque caused by the interaction between the fall-back disc and the strong magnetic field of the pulsar on the spin evolution of PSR J1734−3333. Analytical result show that this braking torque is obviously far more than that by magnetic dipole radiation for pulsars with spin period of >0.1 s, and play an important role during the spin-down of the pulsars. Our simulated results indicate that, for some typical neutron star parameters, the braking index and the period derivative approximately in agreement with the measured value of PSR J1734−3333 if the material inflow rate in the fall-back disc is 2 × 1017 g s− 1. In addition, our scenario can account for the measured braking indices of four young pulsars. However, our predicted X-ray luminosity are one to two order of magnitude higher than the observation. We proposed that this discrepancy may originate from the instability of fall-back disc.