Some implications of PSR 1259-63

It is estimated that the binary PSR 1259-63 consists of an M9(ns) = 1.4 solar mass neutron star orbiting an M(8) = 200 solar mass Be star with orbital inclination sin (i) greater than about 0.9 and pulsar period derivate P-dot is approximately equal to 10 exp -15. The mass flux in the Be star wind is between the M-dot(8)v(3) range of 0.1 and 1, where v = 1000 v(3) km/s is the wind velocity and M-dot - 10 exp -8 M-dot(8) solar mass/yr is the mass flux. The neutron star disrupts part of the Be star disk during each pericentric encounter leading to dramatic variations in the emission-line profiles, particularly on the blueshifted side of the line. Except when the neutron star passes through the Be star's disk, this system should be a poor X-ray source, probably dominated by the coronal X-ray emission from the Be star. During the passage through the Be star disk the X-ray luminosity should approach levels typical of massive X-ray binaries for a period of about one week.