Green Bank Telescope measurement of the systemic velocity of the double pulsar binary J0737-3039 and implications for its formation

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 V-ISS similar or equal to 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 V-plane similar or equal to 96.0 +/- 3.7 km s(-1) and V-perp similar or equal to 103.1 +/- 7.7 km s(-1), respectively. The large V-perp implies that pulsar B was born with a kick speed of greater than or similar to100 km s(-1). Future Very Long Baseline Array determinations of the angular proper motion in conjunction with improved V-ISS measurements should provide a precise distance to the system. Using high-precision timing data and the V-ISS model, we estimate a best-fit orbital inclination of i = 88.degrees7 +/- 0.degrees9.