Testing Magnetic Field Configurations in Spider Pulsar PSR J1723-2837 with IXPE
Michela Negro, Haocheng Zhang, Niccol`o Di Lalla, Slavko Bogdanov, Zorawar Wadiasingh, Noel Klingler, Jeremy Hare
arXiv:2509.05240v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: We present the first X-ray polarimetry observations of a redback millisecond pulsar binary, PSR J1723-2837, with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We conduct a spectro-polarimetric analysis combining IXPE data with archival Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Swift observations. We explore two limiting magnetic field configurations, parallel and perpendicular to the bulk flow, and simulate their expected polarization signatures using the {tt 3DPol} radiative transport code. To account for the rapid rotation of the polarization angle predicted by these models, we implement a phase-dependent Stokes alignment procedure that preserves the polarization degree while correcting for a phase-rotating PA. We also devise a new maximum-likelihood fitting strategy to determine the phase-dependence of the polarization angle by minimizing the polarization degree uncertainty. This technique hints that the binary may be rotating clockwise relative to the celestial north pole. We find no significant detection of polarization in the IXPE data, with PDarXiv:2509.05240v2 Announce Type: replace
Abstract: We present the first X-ray polarimetry observations of a redback millisecond pulsar binary, PSR J1723-2837, with the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). We conduct a spectro-polarimetric analysis combining IXPE data with archival Chandra, XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, and Swift observations. We explore two limiting magnetic field configurations, parallel and perpendicular to the bulk flow, and simulate their expected polarization signatures using the {tt 3DPol} radiative transport code. To account for the rapid rotation of the polarization angle predicted by these models, we implement a phase-dependent Stokes alignment procedure that preserves the polarization degree while correcting for a phase-rotating PA. We also devise a new maximum-likelihood fitting strategy to determine the phase-dependence of the polarization angle by minimizing the polarization degree uncertainty. This technique hints that the binary may be rotating clockwise relative to the celestial north pole. We find no significant detection of polarization in the IXPE data, with PD

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