Green Bank Telescope Measurement of the Systemic Velocity of the Double Pulsar Binary J0737-3039 and Implications for Its Formation

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Abstract
We report on the measurement at 820 and 1400 MHz of the orbital modulation of the diffractive scintillation timescale from pulsar A in the double-pulsar system J0737-3039 using the Green Bank Telescope. With fits to this modulation, we determine the systemic velocity in the plane of the sky to be VISS 140.9 ± 6.2 km s-1. The parallel and perpendicular components of this velocity with respect to the line of nodes of the pulsar's orbit are Vplane 96.0 ± 3.7 km s-1 and Vperp 103.1 ± 7.7 km s-1, respectively. The large Vperp implies that pulsar B was born with a kick speed of 100 km s-1. Future Very Long Baseline Array determinations of the angular proper motion in conjunction with improved VISS measurements should provide a precise distance to the system. Using high-precision timing data and the VISS model, we estimate a best-fit orbital inclination of i = 887 ± 09.
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