106 research outputs found
Relativistic spin precession in the binary PSR J11416545
PSR J11416545 is a precessing binary pulsar that has the rare potential to
reveal the two-dimensional structure of a non-recycled pulsar emission cone. It
has undergone of relativistic spin precession in the
years since its discovery. In this paper, we present a detailed Bayesian
analysis of the precessional evolution of the width of the total intensity
profile, to understand the changes to the line-of-sight impact angle ()
of the pulsar using four different physically motivated prior distribution
models. Although we cannot statistically differentiate between the models with
confidence, the temporal evolution of the linear and circular polarisations
strongly argue that our line-of-sight crossed the magnetic pole around MJD
54000 and that only two models remain viable. For both these models, it appears
likely that the pulsar will precess out of our line-of-sight in the next
years, assuming a simple beam geometry. Marginalising over suggests
that the pulsar is a near-orthogonal rotator and provides the first
polarization-independent estimate of the scale factor () that
relates the pulsar beam opening angle () to its rotational period ()
as : we find it to be at 1.4
GHz with 99\% confidence. If all pulsars emit from opposite poles of a dipolar
magnetic field with comparable brightness, we might expect to see evidence of
an interpulse arising in PSR J11416545, unless the emission is patchy.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal Letter
Timing of young radio pulsars - I. Timing noise, periodic modulation, and proper motion
The smooth spin-down of young pulsars is perturbed by two non-deterministic
phenomenon, glitches and timing noise. Although the timing noise provides
insights into nuclear and plasma physics at extreme densities, it acts as a
barrier to high-precision pulsar timing experiments. An improved methodology
based on Bayesian inference is developed to simultaneously model the stochastic
and deterministic parameters for a sample of 85 high- radio pulsars
observed for 10 years with the 64-m Parkes radio telescope. Timing noise
is known to be a red process and we develop a parametrization based on the
red-noise amplitude () and spectral index (). We measure
the median to be yr and to
be and show that the strength of timing noise scales
proportionally to , where is the spin
frequency of the pulsar and its spin-down rate. Finally, we measure
significant braking indices for 19 pulsars, proper motions for two pulsars and
discuss the presence of periodic modulation in the arrival times of five
pulsars
Timing analysis for 20 millisecond pulsars in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array
We present timing models for 20 millisecond pulsars in the Parkes Pulsar
Timing Array. The precision of the parameter measurements in these models has
been improved over earlier results by using longer data sets and modelling the
non-stationary noise. We describe a new noise modelling procedure and
demonstrate its effectiveness using simulated data. Our methodology includes
the addition of annual dispersion measure (DM) variations to the timing models
of some pulsars. We present the first significant parallax measurements for
PSRs J1024-0719, J1045-4509, J1600-3053, J1603-7202, and J1730-2304, as well as
the first significant measurements of some post-Keplerian orbital parameters in
six binary pulsars, caused by kinematic effects. Improved Shapiro delay
measurements have resulted in much improved pulsar mass measurements,
particularly for PSRs J0437-4715 and J1909-3744 with
and respectively. The improved orbital
period-derivative measurement for PSR J0437-4715 results in a derived distance
measurement at the 0.16% level of precision, pc, one of the
most fractionally precise distance measurements of any star to date.Comment: 21 pages, 5 figures, 7 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA
Long Term Variability of a Black Widow's Eclipses -- A Decade of PSR J20510827
In this paper we report on years of observations of PSR
J20510827, at radio frequencies in the range 110--4032 MHz. We investigate
the eclipse phenomena of this black widow pulsar using model fits of increased
dispersion and scattering of the pulsed radio emission as it traverses the
eclipse medium. These model fits reveal variability in dispersion features on
timescales as short as the orbital period, and previously unknown trends on
timescales of months--years. No clear patterns are found between the
low-frequency eclipse widths, orbital period variations and trends in the
intra-binary material density. Using polarisation calibrated observations we
present the first available limits on the strength of magnetic fields within
the eclipse region of this system; the average line of sight field is
constrained to be G G, while for the
case of a field directed near-perpendicular to the line of sight we find
G. Depolarisation of the linearly polarised pulses
during the eclipse is detected and attributed to rapid rotation measure
fluctuations of rad m along, or across,
the line of sights averaged over during a sub-integration. The results are
considered in the context of eclipse mechanisms, and we find scattering and/or
cyclotron absorption provide the most promising explanation, while dispersion
smearing is conclusively ruled out. Finally, we estimate the mass loss rate
from the companion to be yr,
suggesting that the companion will not be fully evaporated on any reasonable
timescale
Five new real-time detections of Fast Radio Bursts with UTMOST
We detail a new fast radio burst (FRB) survey with the Molonglo Radio
Telescope, in which six FRBs were detected between June 2017 and December 2018.
By using a real-time FRB detection system, we captured raw voltages for five of
the six events, which allowed for coherent dedispersion and very high time
resolution (10.24 s) studies of the bursts. Five of the FRBs show temporal
broadening consistent with interstellar and/or intergalactic scattering, with
scattering timescales ranging from 0.16 to 29.1 ms. One burst, FRB181017, shows
remarkable temporal structure, with 3 peaks each separated by 1 ms. We searched
for phase-coherence between the leading and trailing peaks and found none,
ruling out lensing scenarios. Based on this survey, we calculate an all-sky
rate at 843 MHz of events sky day to a fluence
limit of 8 Jy-ms: a factor of 7 below the rates estimated from the Parkes and
ASKAP telescopes at 1.4 GHz assuming the ASKAP-derived spectral index
(). Our results suggest that FRB
spectra may turn over below 1 GHz. Optical, radio and X-ray followup has been
made for most of the reported bursts, with no associated transients found. No
repeat bursts were found in the survey.Comment: 13 pages, 11 figures, submitted to MNRA
The UTMOST Survey for Magnetars, Intermittent pulsars, RRATs and FRBs I: System description and overview
We describe the ongoing `Survey for Magnetars, Intermittent pulsars, Rotating
radio transients and Fast radio bursts' (SMIRF), performed using the newly
refurbished UTMOST telescope. SMIRF repeatedly sweeps the southern Galactic
plane performing real-time periodicity and single-pulse searches, and is the
first survey of its kind carried out with an interferometer. SMIRF is
facilitated by a robotic scheduler which is capable of fully autonomous
commensal operations. We report on the SMIRF observational parameters, the data
analysis methods, the survey's sensitivities to pulsars, techniques to mitigate
radio frequency interference and present some early survey results. UTMOST's
wide field of view permits a full sweep of the Galactic plane to be performed
every fortnight, two orders of magnitude faster than previous surveys. In the
six months of operations from January to June 2018, we have performed
sweeps of the Galactic plane with SMIRF. Notable blind re-detections include
the magnetar PSR J16224950, the RRAT PSR J09413942 and the eclipsing
pulsar PSR J17482446A. We also report the discovery of a new pulsar, PSR
J170554. Our follow-up of this pulsar with the UTMOST and Parkes telescopes
at an average flux limit of mJy and mJy respectively,
categorizes this as an intermittent pulsar with a high nulling fraction of Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, comments welcom
2018 X-Ray and Radio Outburst of Magnetar XTE J1810–197
We present the earliest X-ray observations of the 2018 outburst of XTE J1810−197, the first outburst since its 2003 discovery as the prototypical transient and radio-emitting anomalous X-ray pulsar (AXP). The Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) detected XTE J1810−197 immediately after a November 20–26 visibility gap, contemporaneous with its reactivation as a radio pulsar, first observed on December 8. On December 13 the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) detected X-ray emission up to at least 30 keV, with a spectrum well-characterized by a blackbody plus power-law model with temperature kT = 0.74 ± 0.02 keV and photon index Γ = 4.4 ± 0.2 or by a two-blackbody model with kT = 0.59 ± 0.04 keV and kT = 1.0 ± 0.1 keV, both including an additional power-law component to account for emission above 10 keV, with Γ_h = −0.2 ± 1.5 and Γ_h = 1.5 ± 0.5, respectively. The latter index is consistent with hard X-ray flux reported for the nontransient magnetars. In the 2–10 keV bandpass, the absorbed flux is 2 × 10^(−10) erg s^(−1) cm^(−2), a factor of 2 greater than the maximum flux extrapolated for the 2003 outburst. The peak of the sinusoidal X-ray pulse lags the radio pulse by ≈0.13 cycles, consistent with their phase relationship during the 2003 outburst. This suggests a stable geometry in which radio emission originates on magnetic field lines containing currents that heat a spot on the neutron star surface. However, a measured energy-dependent phase shift of the pulsed X-rays suggests that all X-ray emitting regions are not precisely coaligned
Gravitational lensing as a probe of compact object population in the Galaxy
The population of solitary compact objects in the Galaxy is very diffcult to
investigate. In this paper we analyze the possibility of using microlensing
searches to detect and to analyze the properties of the solitary black holes
and neutron stars. Evolution of single and binary stars is considered using the
StarTrack population synthesis code. We investigate the properties of the
Galactic population of compact objects numerically. We find that the compact
object lensing events are concentrated in a region with the radius of degrees around the Galactic center. The distribution of masses of the lenses
for the models we consider differs but only slightly from the underlying
massdistribution. The expected detection rates are of the order of a few per
year.Comment: Submitted to Astronomy and Astrophysic
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