Chandra Smells a RRAT: X-ray Detection of a Rotating Radio Transient

"Rotating RAdio Transients" (RRATs) are a newly discovered astronomical phenomenon, characterised by occasional brief radio bursts, with average intervals between bursts ranging from minutes to hours. The burst spacings allow identification of periodicities, which fall in the range 0.4 to 7 seconds. The RRATs thus seem to be rotating neutron stars, albeit with properties very different from the rest of the population. We here present the serendipitous detection with the Chandra X-ray Observatory of a bright point-like X-ray source coincident with one of the RRATs. We discuss the temporal and spectral properties of this X-ray emission, consider counterparts in other wavebands, and interpret these results in the context of possible explanations for the RRAT population.Comment: 5 pages, 2 b/w figures, 1 color figure. To appear in the proceedings of "Isolated Neutron Stars", Astrophysics & Space Science, in pres

The International Pulsar Timing Array: First data release

International audienceThe highly stable spin of neutron stars can be exploited for a variety of (astro)physical investigations. In particular, arrays of pulsars with rotational periods of the order of milliseconds can be used to detect correlated signals such as those caused by gravitational waves. Three such 'pulsar timing arrays' (PTAs) have been set up around the world over the past decades and collectively form the 'International' PTA (IPTA). In this paper, we describe the first joint analysis of the data from the three regional PTAs, i.e. of the first IPTA data set. We describe the available PTA data, the approach presently followed for its combination and suggest improvements for future PTA research. Particular attention is paid to subtle details (such as underestimation of measurement uncertainty and long-period noise) that have often been ignored but which become important in this unprecedentedly large and inhomogeneous data set. We identify and describe in detail several factors that complicate IPTA research and provide recommendations for future pulsar timing efforts. The first IPTA data release presented here (and available on-line) is used to demonstrate the IPTA's potential of improving upon gravitational-wave limit

Narrowband Searches for Continuous and Long-duration Transient Gravitational Waves from Known Pulsars in the LIGO-Virgo Third Observing Run

Isolated neutron stars that are asymmetric with respect to their spin axis are possible sources of detectable continuous gravitational waves. This paper presents a fully coherent search for such signals from eighteen pulsars in data from LIGO and Virgo's third observing run (O3). For known pulsars, efficient and sensitive matched-filter searches can be carried out if one assumes the gravitational radiation is phase-locked to the electromagnetic emission. In the search presented here, we relax this assumption and allow both the frequency and the time derivative of the frequency of the gravitational waves to vary in a small range around those inferred from electromagnetic observations. We find no evidence for continuous gravitational waves, and set upper limits on the strain amplitude for each target. These limits are more constraining for seven of the targets than the spin-down limit defined by ascribing all rotational energy loss to gravitational radiation. In an additional search, we look in O3 data for long-duration (hours-months) transient gravitational waves in the aftermath of pulsar glitches for six targets with a total of nine glitches. We report two marginal outliers from this search, but find no clear evidence for such emission either. The resulting duration-dependent strain upper limits do not surpass indirect energy constraints for any of these targets. © 2022. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society

Multi-frequency observations of SGR J1935+2154

International audienceMagnetars are a promising candidate for the origin of fast radio bursts (FRBs). The detection of an extremely luminous radio burst from the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 on 2020 April 28 added credence to this hypothesis. We report on simultaneous and non-simultaneous observing campaigns using the Arecibo, Effelsberg, LOFAR, MeerKAT, MK2, and Northern Cross radio telescopes and the MeerLICHT optical telescope in the days and months after the April 28 event. We did not detect any significant single radio pulses down to fluence limits between 25 mJy ms and 18 Jy ms. Some observing epochs overlapped with times when X-ray bursts were detected. Radio images made on 4 d using the MeerKAT telescope revealed no point-like persistent or transient emission at the location of the magnetar. No transient or persistent optical emission was detected over seven days. Using the multicolour MeerLICHT images combined with relations between DM, N_H, and reddening, we constrain the distance to SGR J1935+2154, to be between 1.5 and 6.5 kpc. The upper limit is consistent with some other distance indicators and suggests that the April 28 burst is closer to two orders of magnitude less energetic than the least energetic FRBs. The lack of single-pulse radio detections shows that the single pulses detected over a range of fluences are either rare, or highly clustered, or both. It may also indicate that the magnetar lies somewhere between being radio-quiet and radio-loud in terms of its ability to produce radio emission efficiently

The International Pulsar Timing Array: Second data release

International audienceIn this paper, we describe the International Pulsar Timing Array second data release, which includes recent pulsar timing data obtained by three regional consortia: the European Pulsar Timing Array, the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves, and the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. We analyse and where possible combine high-precision timing data for 65 millisecond pulsars which are regularly observed by these groups. A basic noise analysis, including the processes which are both correlated and uncorrelated in time, provides noise models and timing ephemerides for the pulsars. We find that the timing precisions of pulsars are generally improved compared to the previous data release, mainly due to the addition of new data in the combination. The main purpose of this work is to create the most up-to-date IPTA data release. These data are publicly available for searches for low-frequency gravitational waves and other pulsar science

Pulse profiles of 100 radio pulsars

The observed sample of pulsars was loosely based on a selection of the brightest objects in the LOFAR-visible sky (declination >-30°), using the ATNF Pulsar Catalog1 (Manchester et al., 2005AJ....129.1993M) for guidance. We observed 100 pulsars using the high-band antennas (HBAs) in the six central "Superterp" stations (CS002-CS007) of the LOFAR core. (3 data files)