Formation of Double Neutron Stars, Millisecond Pulsars and Double Black Holes

The 1982 model for the formation of Hulse–Taylor binary radio pulsar PSR B1913+16 is described, which since has become the ‘standard model’ for the formation of the double neutron stars, confirmed by the 2003 discovery of the double pulsar system PSR J0737-3039AB. A brief overview is given of the present status of our knowledge of the double neutron stars, of which 15 systems are presently known. The binary-recycling model for the formation of millisecond pulsars is described, as put forward independently by Alpar et al. (1982), Radhakrishnan & Srinivasan (1982) and Fabian et al. (1983). This now is the ‘standard model’ for the formation of these objects, confirmed by the discovery in 1998 of the accreting millisecond X-ray pulsars. It is noticed that the formation process of close double black holes has analogies to that of close double neutron stars, extended to binaries with larger initial component masses, although there are also considerable differences in the physics of the binary evolution at these larger masses.