The FAST Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot Survey: VII. Six millisecond pulsars in compact orbits with massive white dwarf companions

Abstract

Binary millisecond pulsars with a massive white dwarf (WD) companion are intermediate-mass binary pulsars (IMBPs). They are formed via the Case BB Roche-lobe overflow evolution channel if they are in compact orbits with an orbital period of less than 1 day. They are fairly rare in the known pulsar population; only five such IMBPs have been discovered before, and one of them is in a globular cluster. Here we report six IMBPs in compact orbits: PSRs J0416+5201, J0520+3722, J1919+1341, J1943+2210, J1947+2304 and J2023+2853, discovered during the Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot survey by using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope, doubling the number of such IMBPs due to the high survey sensitivity in the short survey time of 5 minutes. Follow-up timing observations show that they all have either a CO WD or an ONeMg WD companion with a mass greater than about 0.8~$M_\odot$ in a very circular orbit with an eccentricity in the order of $\lesssim10^{-5}$. PSR J0416+5201 should be an ONeMg WD companion with a remarkable minimum mass of 1.28 $M_\odot$. These massive WD companions lead to a detectable Shapiro delay for PSRs J0416+5201, J0520+3722, J1943+2210, and J2023 +2853, indicating that their orbits are highly inclined. From the measurement of the Shapiro delay, the pulsar mass of J1943+2210 was constrained to be 1.84$^{\,+0.11}_{-0.09}$~$M_\odot$, and that of PSR J2023+2853 to be 1.28$^{\,+0.06}_{-0.05}$~$M_\odot$.