The Effects of Stellar Winds on the Envelope Masses of Cooling Low-Mass Dwarfs

Abstract

The determination of the true ages of binary millisecond pulsars is critical to our understanding of their spin-down evolution. The only independent way to estimate these ages is to observe the temperatures of their binary companions and to infer their ages based on the results of detailed stellar evolution computations. In this paper we present recent calculations that quantify the effects of (parameterized) stellar winds on the mass of the envelopes of the white dwarf companions. The thickness of the hydrogen-rich envelopes governs the rate at which the companions cool. By exploring a large region of parameter space our preliminary conclusion is that self-induced stellar winds are not likely to have a significant effect on the cooling rates and thus on the inferred ages of the pulsars themselves. Finally we discuss the construction of an extensive library of computational results pertaining to the evolution of binary millisecond pulsar systems. This data is currently being disseminated by a Web server that is capable of filling client requests for both raw data and for animations showing the detailed evolution of these systems over their entire lifetime.