1,190 research outputs found
Pulsars with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder
The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a 36-element
array with a 30-square-degree field of view being built at the proposed SKA
site in Western Australia. We are conducting a Design Study for pulsar
observations with ASKAP, planning both timing and search observations. We
provide an overview of the ASKAP telescope and an update on pulsar-related
progress.Comment: To appear in proceedings of "Radio Pulsars: An astrophysical key to
unlock the secrets of the Universe
Isolated neutron stars and studies of their interiors
In these lectures presented at Baikal summer school on physics of elementary
particles and astrophysics 2011, I present a wide view of neutron star
astrophysics with special attention paid to young isolated compact objects and
studies of the properties of neutron star interiors using astronomical methods.Comment: 28 pages, lecture notes for the Baikal-2011 summer school on physics
of elementary particles and astrophysic
An Eccentric Binary Millisecond Pulsar in the Galactic Plane
Binary pulsar systems are superb probes of stellar and binary evolution and
the physics of extreme environments. In a survey with the Arecibo telescope, we
have found PSR J1903+0327, a radio pulsar with a rotational period of 2.15 ms
in a highly eccentric (e = 0.44) 95-day orbit around a solar mass companion.
Infrared observations identify a possible main-sequence companion star.
Conventional binary stellar evolution models predict neither large orbital
eccentricities nor main-sequence companions around millisecond pulsars.
Alternative formation scenarios involve recycling a neutron star in a globular
cluster then ejecting it into the Galactic disk or membership in a hierarchical
triple system. A relativistic analysis of timing observations of the pulsar
finds its mass to be 1.74+/-0.04 Msun, an unusually high value.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures inc Supplementary On-Line Material. Accepted for
publication in Science, published on Science Express: 10.1126/science.115758
The helicity amplitudes A and A for the D resonance obtained from the reaction}
The helicity dependence of the reaction
has been measured for the first time in the photon energy range from 550 to 790
MeV. The experiment, performed at the Mainz microtron MAMI, used a
4-detector system, a circularly polarized, tagged photon beam, and a
longitudinally polarized frozen-spin target. These data are predominantly
sensitive to the resonance and are used to determine its
parameters.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
The Green Bank North Celestial Cap Pulsar Survey. IV: Four New Timing Solutions
We present timing solutions for four pulsars discovered in the Green Bank
Northern Celestial Cap (GBNCC) survey. All four pulsars are isolated with spin
periods between 0.26s and 1.84s. PSR J00382501 has a 0.26s
period and a period derivative of ,
which is unusually low for isolated pulsars with similar periods. This low
period derivative may be simply an extreme value for an isolated pulsar or it
could indicate an unusual evolution path for PSR J00382501, such as a
disrupted recycled pulsar (DRP) from a binary system or an orphaned central
compact object (CCO). Correcting the observed spin-down rate for the Shklovskii
effect suggests that this pulsar may have an unusually low space velocity,
which is consistent with expectations for DRPs. There is no X-ray emission
detected from PSR J00382501 in an archival swift observation, which suggests
that it is not a young orphaned CCO. The high dispersion measure of PSR
J1949+3426 suggests a distance of 12.3kpc. This distance indicates that PSR
J1949+3426 is among the most distant 7% of Galactic field pulsars, and is one
of the most luminous pulsars.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
The Green Bank Northern Celestial Cap Pulsar Survey - I: Survey Description, Data Analysis, and Initial Results
We describe an ongoing search for pulsars and dispersed pulses of radio
emission, such as those from rotating radio transients (RRATs) and fast radio
bursts (FRBs), at 350 MHz using the Green Bank Telescope. With the Green Bank
Ultimate Pulsar Processing Instrument, we record 100 MHz of bandwidth divided
into 4,096 channels every 81.92 . This survey will cover the entire sky
visible to the Green Bank Telescope (, or 82% of the sky)
and outside of the Galactic Plane will be sensitive enough to detect slow
pulsars and low dispersion measure (30 ) millisecond
pulsars (MSPs) with a 0.08 duty cycle down to 1.1 mJy. For pulsars with a
spectral index of 1.6, we will be 2.5 times more sensitive than previous and
ongoing surveys over much of our survey region. Here we describe the survey,
the data analysis pipeline, initial discovery parameters for 62 pulsars, and
timing solutions for 5 new pulsars. PSR J02145222 is an MSP in a long-period
(512 days) orbit and has an optical counterpart identified in archival data.
PSR J06365129 is an MSP in a very short-period (96 minutes) orbit with a
very low mass companion (8 ). PSR J06455158 is an isolated MSP
with a timing residual RMS of 500 ns and has been added to pulsar timing array
experiments. PSR J14347257 is an isolated, intermediate-period pulsar that
has been partially recycled. PSR J18164510 is an eclipsing MSP in a
short-period orbit (8.7 hours) and may have recently completed its spin-up
phase.Comment: 18 pages, 10 figures, 5 tables, accepted by Ap
First measurement of the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn integral for Hydrogen from 200 to 800 MeV
A direct measurement of the helicity dependence of the total photoabsorption
cross section on the proton was carried out at MAMI (Mainz) in the energy range
200 < E_gamma < 800 MeV. The experiment used a 4 detection system, a
circularly polarized tagged photon beam and a frozen spin target.
The contributions to the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rule and to the forward
spin polarizability determined from the data are 226 \pm 5 (stat)\pm
12(sys) \mu b and -187 \pm 8 (stat)\pm 10(sys)10^{-6} fm^4, respectively, for
200 < E_\gamma < 800 MeV.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 3 table
Neutron skin of Pb from Coherent Pion Photoproduction
Information on the size and shape of the neutron skin on Pb has been
extracted from coherent pion photoproduction cross sections measured using the
Crystal Ball together with the Glasgow tagger at the MAMI electron beam
facility. On exploitation of an interpolated fit of a theoretical model to the
measured cross sections the half-height radius and diffuseness of the neutron
distribution are found to be 6.70 fm and 0.55 fm respectively, corresponding to a neutron
skin thickness =0.15 fm.
The results give the first successful extraction of a neutron skin with an
electromagnetic probe and indicate the skin of Pb has a halo character.
The measurement provides valuable new constraints on both the structure of
nuclei and the equation of state for neutron-rich matter.Comment: 4 figures 5 pages. Version submitted to journal. Includes additional
studies of systematic effects in the extracted diffuseness, which led to a
small increase in the quoted systematic error. These additional studies are
discussed in the revised manuscript. Also includes minor editorial
improvements to the tex
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