On the subpulse modulation, polarization and sub-beam carousel configuration of pulsar B1857−26

New Giant Metre-Wave Radio Telescope (GMRT) observations of the five-component pulsar B1857−26 provide detailed insight into its pulse-sequence modulation phenomena for the first time. The outer conal components exhibit a 7.4-rotation period, longitude-stationary modulation. Several lines of evidence indicate a carousel circulation time     of about 147 stellar rotations, characteristic of a pattern with 20 beamlets. The pulsar nulls some 20 per cent of the time, usually for only a single pulse, and these nulls show no discernible order or periodicity. Finally, the pulsar's polarization-angle traverse raises interesting issues: if most of its emission comprises a single polarization mode, the full traverse exceeds 180°; or if both polarization modes are present, then the leading and the trailing halves of the profiles exhibit two different modes. In either case, the rotating-vector model fails to fit the polarization-angle traverse of the core component.     

Nulling,Mode-Changing and Drifting Subpulses in the Highly Asymmetric Conal Quadruple Radio Pulsar B2034$$$$19

Radio pulsar B2034\(+\)19 exhibits all three ‘canonical’ pulse-sequence phenomena—that is, pulse nulling, two distinct profile modes and subpulses with periodic modulation. Indeed, the bursts and nulls in the pulsar are short at several score pulses and quasi-periodic such that about 1/3 of the pulses are nulls. The pulsar’s two modes have very different characteristics, the first shows emission almost completely confined to the leading half of the profile and highly modulated in a 2-period odd–even manner; whereas the second mode illuminates both the leading and trailing parts of the star’s profile about equally with the appearance of drift bands at about a 3-period separation. The second mode occurs much less frequently than the first (about 15% of the time) and thus the leading part of the profile has a much larger average intensity than the trailing part. B2034\(+\)19 represents an interesting example of a pulsar with emission primarily in the leading part of its profile window with only occasional illumination in the trailing part. This suggests that there are pulsars that perhaps never emit in a part of their profile window, connecting with earlier work on pulsars with apparent ‘partial cone’ profiles.     

A study of subpulse phase correlation across nulls in PSR B0031−07

The correlation of subpulse phases across nulls is investigated in the radio pulsar PSR B0031−07, using 29 849 periods of high-quality data obtained with the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) which operates at 327 MHz. Assuming that the turn-off and turn-on subpulse phases (the phase of the subpulse in the last period before the null and that in the first period after the null, respectively) are independent random variables, the expected distribution of their difference (i.e. the total drift) is inconsistent with the observed distribution for null transitions within the same drift mode; this implies a correlation of subpulse phase across nulls. However, this correlation decreases with null duration for both the dominant drift modes. Substantial drifting occurs during short nulls (one to four periods); the drift rate during the short nulls appears to be constant for a class A transition, whereas it decreases with null duration for class B transitions. These results, together with the reported behaviour of PSR B1944+17 and PSR B0809+74, seem to imply different time-scales for phase correlation in different pulsars.     

Pulsar PSR B2303+30: a single system of drifting subpulses, moding and nulling

Analyses of multiple pulse sequences of the pulsar PSR B2303+30 reveal two distinct emission modes. One mode (B) follows a steady even–odd pattern and is more intense. The second mode (Q) is characteristically weak, but has intermittent drift bands with a periodicity of approximately 3 P ₁/cycle, and nulls much more frequently than the B mode. Both modes occur with roughly equal frequency, and their profiles have a similar single-humped form with a slight asymmetry. Our observations and analyses strongly suggest that the subpulse drift rates in both modes are linked in a series of cycles, which can be modelled as relaxing oscillations in the underlying circulation rate.     

脉冲星射电轮廓中高斯成分在主脉冲和中间脉冲的不同分布

研究了高斯辐射成分在可视点所画出轨迹上的分布,这个可视点因脉冲星的转动而作非匀速度运动.通过假设辐射区域围绕磁轴均匀分布,一个高斯辐射成分便对应于可视轨迹划过的一个辐射区域.因为演示辐射区域在可视轨迹上是不均匀的分布,因此高斯成分沿轨迹也是不均匀的,而高斯成分的密度在磁轴与视线距离最近时为最大.高斯成分的分布取决于脉冲星的两个角度:旋转轴和视线之间的夹角,以及磁轴和旋转轴之间的倾角.基于此模型,一个脉冲星平均轮廓中观察到的多个高斯成分便对应于可视轨迹在特定的转动相位范围内的辐射区域.演示了脉冲星旋转的近侧和远侧的相位,分别对应的主脉冲和中间脉冲,两者高斯成分的数量和分布是不同的.而且还发现,沿可视轨迹上的辐射区域总数与围绕磁轴的辐射区域的总数是不同,并且预测的辐射区域数目会因忽略可见点的运动而明显不同.拟合表明脉冲星轮廓的高斯成分的形状和数量可能与实际构成轮廓的成分的形状和数量不同.以PSR B0826–34的辐射为例,并假设辐射来自单一磁极.     

The energy loss of a rotating magnetized neutron star

The analysis of observations of pulsar B1931+24 shows that the mechanism of the spin-down of a rotating magnetized neutron star is due to the plasma generation in its magnetosphere and, consequently, the radio emission generation. The unique observation of the switch on and switch off of this pulsar allows us to distinguish between the energy loss in the absence of radio emission (the magnetodipole radiation) and the current loss due to the rotation energy expenditure to the relativistic plasma generation and acceleration in the pulsar magnetosphere. The inclination angle χ, the angle between the rotation axis and the magnetic dipole axis, can be stationary for this pulsar,  χ=χ_st  . From observations and theory it follows that  χ_st= 59°  .     

Periodic nulls in the pulsar B1133+16

Numerous studies of the brightest Cambridge pulsar, B1133+16, have revealed little order in its individual pulses, apart from a weak 30-odd-rotation-period fluctuation feature and that some 15 per cent of the star's pulsars are 'nulls'. New Arecibo observations confirm this fluctuation feature and that it modulates all the emission, not simply the 'saddle' region. By replacing each pulse with a scaled version of the average profile, we were able to quench all subpulse modulation and thereby demonstrate that the star's 'null' pulses exhibit a similar periodicity. A subbeam carousel model with a sparse and irregular 'beamlet' population appears to be compatible with these characteristics.     

The topology and polarization of subbeams associated with the 'drifting' subpulse emission of pulsar B0943+10 – V. A new look at the low-frequency burst-mode emission

This paper reports new observations of pulsar B0943+10 carried out at the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory (PRAO) at the low radio frequencies of 42, 62 and 112 MHz. B0943+10 is well known for its exquisitely regular burst-mode (B-mode) drifting subpulses as well as its weaker and chaotic quiescent mode. Earlier Arecibo investigations at 327 MHz have identified remarkable, continuous changes in its B-mode subpulse drift rate and integrated-profile shape with durations of several hours. These PRAO observations reveal that the changes in profile shape during the B-mode lifetime are strongly frequency dependent – namely the measured changes in the component amplitude ratio are more dramatic at 327 and 112 MHz as compared with those at 62 and 42 MHz. The differences, however, are most marked during the first several tens of minutes after B-mode onset; after an hour or so the profile shape changes tend to be more similar at all four frequencies. We also have found that the linear polarization of the integrated profile increases continuously throughout the lifetime of the B mode, going from hardly 10 per cent just after onset to some 40–50 per cent after several hours. Pulsar B0943+10's B mode thus provides a unique new opportunity to investigate continuous systematic changes in the plasma flow within the polar flux tube. While refraction in the pulsar's magnetosphere may well play some role, we find that the various frequency-dependent effects, both between and within the two modes, can largely be understood geometrically. If the modes and B-mode decay reflect systematic variations in the carousel-'spark' radius and emission height then a specific set of profile and linear polarization changes would be expected.     

Current Flows in Pulsar Magnetospheres

The global structure of current flows in pulsar magnetosphere is investigated, with rough calculations of the circuit elements. It is emphasized that the potential of the critical field lines (the field lines that intersect the null surface at the light cylinder radius) should be the same as that of interstellar medium, and that pulsars whose rotation axes and magnetic dipole axes are parallel should be positively charged, in order to close the pulsar's current flows. The statistical relation between the radio luminosity and pulsar's electric charge (or the spindown power) may hint that the millisecond pulsars could be low-mass bare strange stars.     

Millisecond pulsar radiation properties

Two investigations of millisecond pulsar radiation are discussed: average total intensity pulse morphology and individual pulse to pulse fluctuations. The average emission profiles of millisecond pulsars are compared with those of slower pulsars in the context of polar cap models. In general the full widths of pulsar emission regions continue to widen inversely with periodP as P^-(0.30-0.5) as expected for dipole polar cap models. Many pulse components are very narrow. The period scaling of pulsar profiles -separations and widths -can tell us about the angular distribution of radiating currents. An investigation of individual pulses from two millisecond pulsars at 430 MHz shows erratic pulse to pulse variations similar to that seen in slow pulsars. PSR B1937+21 displays occasional strong pulses that are located in the trailing edge of the average profile with relative flux densities in the range of 100 to 400. These are similar to the giant pulses seen in the Crab pulsar.     

The effect of pulse profile evolution on pulsar dispersion measure

In an earlier paper, based on simultaneous multifrequency observations with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), we reported the variation of pulsar dispersion measures (DMs) with frequency. A few different explanations are possible for such frequency dependence, and a possible candidate is the effect of pulse shape evolution on the DM estimation technique. In this paper we describe extensive simulations we have done to investigate the effect of pulse profile evolution on pulsar DM estimates. We find that it is only for asymmetric pulse shapes that the DM estimate is significantly affected due to profile evolution with frequency. Using multifrequency data sets from our earlier observations, we have carried out systematic analyses of PSR B0329+54 and PSR B1642−03. Both these pulsars have central core-dominated emission which does not show significant asymmetric profile evolution with frequency. Even so, we find that the estimated DM shows significant variation with frequency for these pulsars. We also report results from new, simultaneous multifrequency observations of PSR B1133+16 carried out using the GMRT in phased array mode. This pulsar has an asymmetric pulse profile with significant evolution with frequency. We show that in such a case, amplitude of the observed DM variations can be attributed to profile evolution with frequency. We suggest that genuine DM variations with frequency could arise due to propagation effects through the interstellar medium and/or the pulsar magnetosphere.     

Mapping the magnetosphere of PSR B1055−52

We present a geometric study of the radio and γ-ray pulsar B1055−52 based on recent observations at the Parkes radio telescope. We conclude that the pulsar's magnetic axis is inclined at an angle of 75° to its rotation axis and that both its radio main pulse and interpulse are emitted at the same height above their respective poles. This height is unlikely to be higher or much lower than 700 km, a typical value for radio pulsars.
It is argued that the radio interpulse arises from emission formed on open fieldlines close to the magnetic axis which do not pass through the magnetosphere's null (zero-charge) surface. However, the main pulse emission must originate from fieldlines lying well outside the polar cap boundary beyond the null surface, and farther away from the magnetic axis than those of the outer gap region where the single γ-ray peak is generated. This casts doubt on the common assumption that all pulsars have closed, quiescent, corotating regions stretching to the light cylinder.     

Interstellar holography

The dynamic spectrum of a radio pulsar is an in-line digital hologram of the ionized interstellar medium. It has previously been demonstrated that such holograms permit image reconstruction, in the sense that one can determine an approximation to the complex electric field values as a function of Doppler shift and delay, but to date the quality of the reconstructions has been poor. Here we report a substantial improvement in the method which we have achieved by simultaneous optimization of the thousands of coefficients that describe the electric field. For our test spectrum of PSR B0834+06 we find that the model provides an accurate representation of the data over the full 63 dB dynamic range of the observations: residual differences between model and data are noise like. The advent of interstellar holography enables detailed quantitative investigation of the interstellar radio-wave propagation paths for a given pulsar at each epoch of observation. We illustrate this using our test data which show the scattering material to be structured and highly anisotropic. The temporal response of the medium exhibits a scattering tail which extends to beyond  100 μs  , and the centroid of the pulse at this frequency and this epoch of observation is delayed by approximately  15 μs  as a result of multipath propagation in the interstellar medium.     

Evolution of Pulsars with Energy Release in the Superfluid Core of a Neutron Star

The effect of a neutron-proton vortex system on the rotation dynamics of neutron stars is examined. The dynamics of the motion of a two component superfluid system in the core of a neutron star yields an equation for the evolution of the pulsar's rotation period. The spin down of the star owing to energy release at the core boundary, which is associated with a contraction of the length of the neutron vortex as it moves radially and magnetic energy of the vortical cluster is released, is taken into account. Evolutionary curves are constructed for pulsars with different magnetic fields and stellar radii. For certain values of the coefficient of friction between the superfluid and normal components in the core of the neutron star, at the end of its evolution a radio pulsar may become an anomalous x-ray pulsar or a source of soft gamma radiation with a period on the order of 10 seconds.     

Optimal filters for the construction of the ensemble pulsar time

An algorithm of the ensemble pulsar time based on the optimal Wiener filtration method has been constructed. This algorithm allows the separation of the contributions to the post-fit pulsar timing residuals of the atomic clock and the pulsar itself. Filters were designed using the cross- and auto-covariance functions of the timing residuals. The method has been applied to the timing data of millisecond pulsars PSR B1855+09 and B1937+21 and allowed the filtering out of the atomic-scale component from the pulsar data. Direct comparison of the terrestrial time TT(BIPM06) and the ensemble pulsar time PT_ens revealed that the fractional instability of TT(BIPM06)−PT_ens is equal to  σ _z = (0.8 ± 1.9) × 10⁻¹⁵  . Based on the  σ _z   statistics of TT(BIPM06)−PT_ens, a new limit of the energy density of the gravitational wave background was calculated to be equal to  Ω_g h ²∼ 3 × 10⁻⁹  .     

Giant radio pulses from the millisecond pulsar PSR B1937+21 at 327 MHz

Seven giant radio pulses were recorded from the millisecond pulsar PSR B1937+21 during ≈8.1 min observation by the Ooty Radio Telescope (ORT) at 326.5 MHz. Although sparse, these observations support most of the giant pulse behaviour reported at higher radio frequencies (430 to 2380 MHz). Within the main component of the integrated profile, they are emitted only in a narrow (≲47 μs) window of pulse phase, close to its peak. This has important implications for doing super-high precision timing of PSR B1937+21 at low radio frequencies.     

Detection of giant pulses from the pulsar PSR B1112+50

We detected giant pulses from the pulsar PSR B1112+50. A pulse with an intensity that is a factor of 30 or more higher than the intensity of the average pulse is encountered approximately once in 150 observed pulses. The peak flux density of the strongest pulse is about 180 Jy. This value is a factor of 80 higher than the peak flux density of the average pulse. The giant pulses are narrower than the average profile by approximately a factor of 5 and they cluster about the center of the average profile.     

Toward an Understanding of the Periastron Puzzle of PSR B1259-63

Efforts are made to understand the timing behaviors (e.g., the jumps in the projected pulsar semimajor axis at the periastron passages) observed in the 13-year monitoring of PSR B1259-63. Planet-like objects are suggested to orbit around the Be star, which may gravitationally perturb the (probably low mass) pulsar when it passes through periastron. An accretion disk should exist outside the pulsar's light cylinder, which creates a spindown torque on the pulsar due to the propeller effect. The observed negative braking index and the discrepant timing residuals close to periastron could be related to the existence of a disk with a varying accretion rate. A speculation is presented that the accretion rate may increase on a long timescale in order to explain the negative braking index.     

环加速间隙下的脉冲星星风制动模型

为了解释间歇脉冲星PSR B1931+24在射电噪比射电宁静状态下更大的自转减慢率和模拟蟹状星云脉冲星的自转演化,建立同时考虑了具有不同加速电势的核区和环区的环加速间隙下的星风制动模型.其中对于PSR B1931+24通过计算得到它的磁场强度和磁倾角,并且预言了其理论制动指数.对于蟹状星云脉冲星,通过计算得到它的磁场强度和磁倾角,还计算得到其制动指数随周期的演化和它在周期-周期导数图上的自转演化.相比于真空加速间隙、外加速间隙等,环加速间隙也同样能够适用于星风制动模型.     

PSR J1453+1902 and the radio luminosities of solitary versus binary millisecond pulsars

We present 3 yr of timing observations for PSR J1453+1902, a 5.79-ms pulsar discovered during a 430-MHz drift-scan survey with the Arecibo telescope. Our observations show that PSR J1453+1902 is solitary and has a proper motion of  8 ±  2  mas yr⁻¹. At the nominal distance of 1.2 kpc estimated from the pulsar's dispersion measure, this corresponds to a transverse speed of  46 ± 11   km s⁻¹  , typical of the millisecond pulsar population. We analyse the current sample of 55 millisecond pulsars in the Galactic disc and revisit the question of whether the luminosities of isolated millisecond pulsars are different from their binary counterparts. We demonstrate that the apparent differences in the luminosity distributions seen in samples selected from 430-MHz surveys can be explained by small-number statistics and observational selection biases. An examination of the sample from 1400-MHz surveys shows no differences in the distributions. The simplest conclusion from the current data is that the spin, kinematic, spatial and luminosity distributions of isolated and binary millisecond pulsars are consistent with a single homogeneous population.