Short time scale pulse stability of the Crab pulsar in the optical band

The fine structure and the variations of the optical pulse shape and phase of the Crab pulsar are studied on various time scales. The observations have been carried out on 4-m William Hershel and 6-m BTA telescopes with APD photon counter, photomultiplier based 4-channel photometer and PSD based panoramic spectrophotopolarimeter with 1$\mu$s time resolution in 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2005-2006 years. The upper limit on the pulsar precession on Dec 2, 1999 is placed in the 10 s - 2 hours time range. The evidence of a varying from set to set fine structure of the main pulse is found in the 1999 and 2003 years data. No such fine structure is detected in the integral pulse shape of 1994, 1999 and 2003 years. The drastic change of the pulse shape in the 2005-2006 years set is detected along with the pulse shape variability and quasi-periodic phase shifts.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures. To appear in ApSS, in the proceedings of the conference "Isolated Neutron Stars: from the Interior to the Surface", London, April 2006; eds. D. Page, R. Turolla and S. Zan

Rapid Polarized Emission Variability of Blazar S5 0716+714 in Optical Range

© 2020, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. Abstract—: The results of polarimetric observations of blazar S5 0716+714, carried out with the 6-meter BTA telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences, are presented. The polarized emission microvariability of blazar S5 0716+714 was observed in the R band with an initial time resolution of 3–5 seconds. Exposures were integrated at 1-minute intervals with a total observation time of several hours over two nights. Microvariability of the polarization degree with amplitude of 3–4% was detected during 7–11 minutes and flux oscillations within 9–10% during 25 minutes. A partial synchronism of the flux oscillations and the polarization degree of this blazar was found. Possible interpretations of the detected microvariability are briefly described

A search for the optical counterpart of PSR B1951+32 in the supernova remnant CTB 80

Using time-resolved two-dimensional aperture photometry we have put upper limits on the pulsed emission from two proposed optical counterparts for PSR B1951+32. Our pulsed upper limits of mv,pulsed > 23.3, mb,pulsed > 24.4, for the first candidate and mv,pulsed > 23.6, mb,pulsed > 24.3 for the second, make it unlikely that either of these is, in fact, the pulsar. We discuss three further candidates, but also reject these on the basis of timing results. A search of a 5.""5 × 5.""5 area centred close to these stars failed to find any significant pulsations at the reported pulsar period

Photosensor Device Based on a 16-Electrode Position-Sensitive Detector with High Temporal Resolution

© 2020, Pleiades Publishing, Ltd. Abstract—We report the development of a photosensor device based on a position-sensitive detector with a gallium arsenide (GaAs) cathode and a 16-element anode. In the case of asymmetric heterostatic circuit (electrodes combined in fours) its working field was limited by 10 mm (for a 18-mm photocathode). Implementing a scheme of analog coding of the coordinates of the centroids of electron avalanches arriving to the anode in the photosensor device made it possible to increase the field size to 14 mm and achieve a spatial resolution of 50 μm. The resulting photosensor device is used as the principal component of a multimode field photopolarimeter in observations with a microsecond time resolution on the 6-m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences. We report some of the results obtained in the process of this work

High Temporal Resolution Multi-Mode Panoramic Photospectropolarimeter

Abstract: The paper describes a new stage in the development of the hardware-software complex of the MANIA experiment to search for and study the brightness variability of astrophysical objects with a temporal resolution of 10-6S s. The panoramic photospectropolarimeter uses the remotely mounted optical units—the color separation modules which allow one to carry out observations in five modes: the most transparent, multi-band, photo-polarimetric, spectroscopic, and spectro-polarimetric. Two photodetectors (PDs) based on position sensitive detectors (PSDs) with the S-20 and GaAs cathodes, the multiplication of photocurrents with microchannel plates (MCPs), and detection using collectors with the number of elements from 4 up to 16 and an EMCCD camera allow one to detect light fluxes from objects and reference stars in a field of view of up to 1 in several color bands in the low resolution spectroscopic mode, and at the same time to measure the linear polarization in three Stokes parameters. The detection system accumulates the observed data: the digitized photocount fluxes from both PDs with a temporal resolution of 1μswhile the EMCCD camera accumulates video sequences with a subsecond resolution simultaneously with the reception of ultraviolet quanta with a microsecond resolution on a single PD. We present some research results obtained in observations with the 6-m SAO RAS telescope

Coordinated observations of the red dwarf flare star EV Lac in 1998

The results of photometric studies of the flare star EV Lac obtained in the course of cooperative observations in 1998 are presented. No significant brightness variations in IR were found from simultaneous observations of the star in UBVRI and H bands, in coincidence with the observed optical flares. Within the framework of the zonal spottedness model of stars the EV Lac surface inhomogeneity parameters are estimated

Massive search of spot- and facula-crossing events in 1598 exoplanetary transit lightcurves

We developed a dedicated statistical test for a massive detection of spot- A nd facula-crossing anomalies in multiple exoplanetary transit light curves, based on the frequentist p-value thresholding. This test was used to augment our algorithmic pipeline for transit light curves analysis. It was applied to 1598 amateur and professional transit observations of 26 targets being monitored in the EXPANSION project. We detected 109 statistically significant candidate events revealing a roughly 2 : 1 asymmetry in favor of spots-crossings over faculae-crossings. Although some candidate anomalies likely appear non-physical and originate from systematic errors, such asymmetry between negative and positive events should indicate a physical difference between the frequency of star spots and faculae. Detected spot-crossing events also reveal positive correlation between their amplitude and width, possibly due to spot size correlation. However, the frequency of all detectable crossing events appears just about a few per cent, so they cannot explain excessive transit timing noise observed for several targets.Fil: Baluev, R. V.. Saint Petersburg State University; RusiaFil: Sokov, E. N.. Saint Petersburg State University; Rusia. Russian Academy of Sciences. Central Astronomical Observatory at Pulkovo; RusiaFil: Sokova, I. A.. Saint Petersburg State University; Rusia. Russian Academy of Sciences. Central Astronomical Observatory at Pulkovo; RusiaFil: Shaidulin, V. Sh.. Saint Petersburg State University; RusiaFil: Veselova, A. V.. Saint Petersburg State University; RusiaFil: Aitov, V. N.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; RusiaFil: Mitiani, G. Sh.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; RusiaFil: Valeev, A. F.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; Rusia. Russian Academy of Sciences. Crimean Astrophysical Observatory; RusiaFil: Gadelshin, D.R.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; RusiaFil: Gutaev, A. G.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; Rusia. KazanFederal University (Volga Region); RusiaFil: Beskin, G.M.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; Rusia. KazanFederal University (Volga Region); RusiaFil: Valyavin, G. G.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Special Astrophysical Observatory; Rusia. Russian Academy of Sciences. Crimean Astrophysical Observatory; Rusia. Saint Petersburg State University; RusiaFil: Antonyuk, K.. Russian Academy of Sciences. Crimean Astrophysical Observatory; RusiaFil: Barkaoui, K.. Université de Liège; Bélgica. Cadi Ayyad University; MarruecosFil: Gillon, M.. Université de Liège; BélgicaFil: Jehin, E.. Université de Liège; BélgicaFil: Delrez, L.. Université de Liège; BélgicaFil: Gumundsson, S.. Nes Observatory; IslandiaFil: Dale, H. A.. University of Emory; Estados UnidosFil: Fernandez Lajus, Eduardo Eusebio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Di Sisto, Romina Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas. Instituto de Astrofísica La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Bretton, M.. Baronnies Provençales Observatory; FranciaFil: Wunsche, A.. Baronnies Provençales Observatory; FranciaFil: Hentunen, V. P.. Taurus Hill Observatory; FinlandiaFil: Shadick, S.. University of Saskatchewan; CanadáFil: Jongen, Y.. Observatoire de Vaison la Romaine; FranciaFil: Kang, W.. National Youth Space Center; Corea del SurFil: Kim, T.. National Youth Space Center; Corea del Sur. Chungbuk National University; Corea del SurFil: Pakštienė, E.. Vilnius University; LituaniaFil: Qvam, J. K. T.. Horten Videregående Skole; Norueg