RECYCLING PULSARS TO MILLISECOND PERIODS IN GENERAL-RELATIVITY

We use models of rapidly rotating neutron stars in general relativity to construct evolutionary tracks for the recycling of pulsars to milli second periods. We give an exact treatment for a simple recycling scen ario where accretion occurs from the inner edge of a Keplerian disk on to a bare neutron star. For this scenario we tabulate the shortest ach ievable period and corresponding accreted rest mass for 13 nuclear equ ations of state. For each equation of state, we determine whether a no nrotating 1.4 M. star can be spun up to millisecond periods without ex ceeding the maximum mass or rotation limits. We find that spin-up is p ossible for all of the equations of state, even those with a static ma ximum mass close to 1.4 M..