Unraveling the eclipses of millisecond pulsars in a compact binary

A group of scientists working at the National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA), Pune have for the first time unraveled the eclipse mechanisms for the millisecond pulsars in compact binary systems using the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT). Eclipses in millisecond pulsars have been known since the 1980’s, but the exact cause of these eclipses have not been understood till now. Devojyoti Kansabanik a Ph.D. student at NCRA is the lead author of the paper describing this work, which was done under the guidance of Dr. Bhaswati Bhattacharyya, also at NCRA. Dr. Jayanta Roy of NCRA and Prof. Benjamin Stappers from the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, The University of Manchester are the other authors.