A LIKELY MILLISECOND PULSAR BINARY COUNTERPART FOR FERMI SOURCE 2FGL J2039.6-5620

摘要

We have identified an optical/X-ray binary with an orbital period of P-b = 5.47 hr as the likely counterpart of the Fermi source 2FGL J2039.6-5620. GROND, SOAR, and DES observations provide an accurate orbital period and allow us to compare to the light curve of an archival XMM exposure. Like many short-period optical/X-ray binaries associated with Large Area Telescope sources, this may be an interacting (black widow/redback) millisecond pulsar binary. The X-ray light curve is consistent with the emission associated with an intrabinary shock. The optical light curve shows evidence of companion heating, but has a peculiar asymmetric double peak. The nature of this optical structure is not yet clear; additional optical studies and, in particular, detection of an orbital modulation in a gamma-ray pulsar are needed to elucidate the nature of this peculiar source.