Geodetic Precession and the Binary Pulsar B1913+16

A change of the component separation in the profiles of the binary pulsar PSR B1913+16 has been observed for the first time (Kramer 1998) as expected by geodetic precession. In this work we extend the previous work by accounting for recent data from the Effelsberg 100-m telescope and Arecibo Observatory and testing model predictions. We demonstrate how the new information will provide additional information on the solutions of the system geometry.Comment: 2 pages, 1 figure, IAU 177 Colloquium: Pulsar Astronomy - 2000 and Beyon

Timing models for the long-orbital period binary pulsar PSR B1259-63

The pulsar PSR B1259-63 is in a highly eccentric 3.4-yr orbit with the Be star SS 2883. Timing observations of this pulsar, made over a 7-yr period using the Parkes 64-m radio telescope, cover two periastron passages, in 1990 August and 1994 January. The timing data cannot be fitted by the normal pulsar and Keplerian binary parameters. A timing solution including a (non-precessing) Keplerian orbit and timing noise (represented as a polynomial of fifth order in time) provide a satisfactory fit to the data. However, because the Be star probably has a significant quadrupole moment, we prefer to interpret the data by a combination of timing noise, dominated by a cubic phase term, and $\dot\omega$ and $\dot x$ terms. We show that the $\dot\omega$ and $\dot x$ are likely to be a result of a precessing orbit caused by the quadrupole moment of the tilted companion star. We further rule out a number of possible physical effects which could contribute to the timing data of PSR B1259-63 on a measurable level.Comment: LaTeX, 9 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

Calibration of LACIS as a CCN detector and its use in measuring activation and hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles

A calibration for LACIS (Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator) for its use as a CCN (cloud condensation nuclei) detector has been developed. For this purpose, sodium chloride and ammonium sulfate particles of known sizes were generated and their grown sizes were detected at the LACIS outlet. From these signals, the effective critical super-saturation was derived as a function of the LACIS wall temperature. With this, LACIS is calibrated for its use as a CCN detector. The applicability of LACIS for measurements of the droplet activation, and also of the hygroscopic growth of atmospheric aerosol particles was tested. The activation of the urban aerosol particles used in the measurements was found to occur at a critical super-saturation of 0.46% for particles with a dry diameter of 75 nm, and at 0.42% for 85 nm, respectively. Hygroscopic growth was measured for atmospheric aerosol particles with dry diameters of 150, 300 and 350 nm at relative humidities of 98 and 99%, and it was found that the larger dry particles contained a larger soluble volume fraction of about 0.85, compared to about 0.6 for the 150 nm particles

Design and performance of an automatic regenerating adsorption aerosol dryer for continuous operation at monitoring sites

Sizes of aerosol particles depend on the relative humidity of their carrier gas. Most monitoring networks require therefore that the aerosol is dried to a relative humidity below 50% r.H. to ensure comparability of measurements at different sites. Commercially available aerosol dryers are often not suitable for this purpose at remote monitoring sites. Adsorption dryers need to be regenerated frequently and maintenance-free single column Nafion dryers are not designed for high aerosol flow rates. We therefore developed an automatic regenerating adsorption aerosol dryer with a design flow rate of 1 m3/h. Particle transmission efficiency of this dryer has been determined during a 3 week experiment. The lower 50% cut-off was found to be smaller than 3 nm at the design flow rate of the instrument. Measured transmission efficiencies are in good agreement with theoretical calculations. One dryer has been successfully deployed in the Amazon river basin. We present data from this monitoring site for the first 6 months of measurements (February 2008–August 2008). Apart from one unscheduled service, this dryer did not require any maintenance during this time period. The average relative humidity of the dried aerosol was 27.1+/−7.5% r.H. compared to an average ambient relative humidity of nearly 80% and temperatures around 30°C. This initial deployment demonstrated that these dryers are well suitable for continuous operation at remote monitoring sites under adverse ambient conditions

Pulsar J1411+2551: A Low Mass New Double Neutron Star System

In this work, we report the discovery and characterization of PSR J1411+2551, a new binary pulsar discovered in the Arecibo 327 MHz Drift Pulsar Survey. Our timing observations of the radio pulsar in the system span a period of about 2.5 years. This timing campaign allowed a precise measurement of its spin period (62.4 ms) and its derivative (9.6 $\pm$ 0.7) $\times 10^{-20}\, \rm s\, s^{-1}$; from these, we derive a characteristic age of $\sim 10\,$Gyr and a surface magnetic field strength of 2.5 $\times 10^{9}$ G. These numbers indicate that this pulsar was mildly recycled by accretion of matter from the progenitor of the companion star. The system has an eccentric ($e\, = \, 0.17$) 2.61 day orbit. This eccentricity allows a highly significant measurement of the rate of advance of periastron, $\dot{\omega} = 0.07686 \pm 0.00046 ^{\circ}~{\rm yr}^{-1}$. Assuming general relativity accurately models the orbital motion, this implies a total system mass M = $2.538 \pm 0.022 M_{\odot}$. The minimum companion mass is $0.92\, M_{\odot}$ and the maximum pulsar mass is $1.62\, M_{\odot}$. The large companion mass and the orbital eccentricity suggest that PSR J1411+2551 is a double neutron star system; the lightest known to date including the DNS merger GW 170817. Furthermore, the relatively low orbital eccentricity and small proper motion limits suggest that the second supernova had a relatively small associated kick; this and the low system mass suggest that it was an ultra-stripped supernova.Comment: Accepted for publication in APJ letter

Chaos in the Kepler System

The long-term dynamical evolution of a Keplerian binary orbit due to the emission and absorption of gravitational radiation is investigated. This work extends our previous results on transient chaos in the planar case to the three dimensional Kepler system. Specifically, we consider the nonlinear evolution of the relative orbit due to gravitational radiation damping as well as external gravitational radiation that is obliquely incident on the initial orbital plane. The variation of orbital inclination, especially during resonance capture, turns out to be very sensitive to the initial conditions. Moreover, we discuss the novel phenomenon of chaotic transition.Comment: RevTeX, 22 pages, 6 figure

Detecting massive gravitons using pulsar timing arrays

At the limit of weak static fields, general relativity becomes Newtonian gravity with a potential field that falls off as inverse distance rather than a theory of Yukawa-type fields with a finite range. General relativity also predicts that the speed of disturbances of its waves is c, the vacuum light speed, and is non-dispersive. For these reasons, the graviton, the boson for general relativity, can be considered to be massless. Massive gravitons, however, are features of some alternatives to general relativity. This has motivated experiments and observations that, so far, have been consistent with the zero-mass graviton of general relativity, but further tests will be valuable. A basis for new tests may be the high sensitivity gravitational wave (GW) experiments that are now being performed and the higher sensitivity experiments that are being planned. In these experiments, it should be feasible to detect low levels of dispersion due to non-zero graviton mass. One of the most promising techniques for such a detection may be the pulsar timing program that is sensitive to nano-Hertz GWs. Here, we present some details of such a detection scheme. The pulsar timing response to a GW background with the massive graviton is calculated, and the algorithm to detect the massive graviton is presented. We conclude that, with 90% probability, massless gravitons can be distinguished from gravitons heavier than 3 × 10-22 eV (Compton wavelength λg = 4.1 × 1012 km), if bi-weekly observation of 60 pulsars is performed for 5 years with a pulsar rms timing accuracy of 100 ns. If 60 pulsars are observed for 10 years with the same accuracy, the detectible graviton mass is reduced to 5 × 10-23 eV (λg = 2.5 × 1013 km); for 5 year observations of 100 or 300 pulsars, the sensitivity is respectively 2.5 × 10-22 (λg = 5.0 × 1012 km) and 10-22 eV (λg = 1.2 × 1013 km). Finally, a 10 year observation of 300 pulsars with 100 ns timing accuracy would probe graviton masses down to 3 × 10-23 eV (λ g = 4.1 × 1013 km). © 2010. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A