Publications
of the
MPIfR
Optical & Infrared
Interferometry Group
D. Schönberner, T. Driebe, and T.
Blöcker:
The evolution of helium white dwarfs:
III. On the ages of millisecond pulsar systems
Astronomy and Astrophysics 356, 929-934 (2000)
Abstract.
We employed recently computed evolutionary white-dwarf models with
helium
cores, supplemented by heavier models with carbon-oxygen cores, in
order
to investigate the ages of millisecond pulsar systems based on the
cooling
properties of the compact companions. Contrary to the behaviour of more
massive white dwarfs, the evolutionary speed of low-mass white-dwarf
models is substantially slowed down by ongoing hydrogen burning. By
comparing the cooling ages of
these models with the spin-down ages of the pulsars for those
systems for which reasonable information about the compact companions
is
available, we found good correspondence between both ages.
Based on these models any revisions concerning the temporal evolution
of
millisecond pulsars do not appear to be necessary.
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