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 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.     

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.     

PSR B1237+25的强脉冲辐射特性的观测与研究

强脉冲是一种特殊的单脉冲辐射,表现为较强的射电爆发.利用新疆天文台南山25 m射电望远镜研究了PSR B1237+25的强脉冲辐射特性.发现探测到的793个强脉冲出现在积分轮廓的所有辐射成分中,峰值流量密度是平均脉冲的10.2至82.5倍.用对数正态分布对强脉冲的峰值流量密度比、信噪比和脉冲宽度的分布进行了拟合.在15...     

Crab脉冲星巨脉冲辐射等待时间分布的非稳态泊松模拟

利用中国科学院新疆天文台南山观测站26m射电望远镜, 在中心频率1556MHz, 对Crab脉冲星(PSR B0531+21)进行了长达12.6h的连续观测, 观测带宽为512MHz, 时间分辨率为32μs, 研究了巨脉冲辐射的等待时间分布特征. 观测共探测到2097个信噪比大于10的巨脉冲, 对应的流量密度大于100Jy. 巨脉冲的爆发率表现为高度的间歇性, 在较短的时间内具有较高的爆发率, 在相对长的宁静期内巨脉冲的爆发率较低, 尤其是中间脉冲相位内的巨脉冲爆发. 相邻两个巨脉冲的等待时间分布表现为幂律分布特征, 可以用一个非稳态的泊松过程进行模拟, 这表明巨脉冲的爆发是一种独立的随机事件. 此外, 主脉冲和中间脉冲相位上的巨脉冲具有不同的等待时间分布特征, 这意味着脉冲星不同磁极的巨脉冲辐射机制可能是不同的. 这些观测结果对于理解脉冲星的射电辐射机制具有重要意义.     

利用南山数据对PSR B0329+54的长时标轮廓稳定性的研究

利用新疆天文台25 m射电望远镜2003—2009年对PSR B0329+54长达453 h的观测数据,研究了这颗源在1540 MHz上正常模式和反常模式的轮廓稳定性时标.通过不同时间的积分脉冲轮廓与参考轮廓交叉相关系数分析,发现随积分时间的增加,两种模式的轮廓先是以较快的速度趋于稳定,在积分时间增加到约(4±1) min时,轮廓趋稳速率放缓,当积分时间达到(140±60) min (正常模式)或达到(65±15) min (反常模式)时,轮廓趋稳速度再次变快.相关系数的结果显示两种模式的轮廓在绝大多数积分时标上都不是完全随机的涨落.如果以发生轮廓趋稳速率从快到慢转变所需的积分时间作为轮廓稳定时标的判据,两种模式的稳定时标均大约为5 min.轮廓中不同成分强度比例的涨落随积分时间的变化关系各不相同,由此可以推断3个成分强度涨落性质有差异.造成轮廓趋稳行为在不同时标上有明显差异的原因有观测噪声和星际闪烁等.     

A New Feature Vector Using Selected Line Spectra for Pulsar Signal Bispectrum Characteristic Analysis and Recognition

Average pulse profiles of pulsar signals are analyzed using the bispectrum tech-nique. The result shows that there are nonlinear phase couplings between the two frequency axes of the bispectrum charts, which indicate nonlinear factors in the generation and prop-agation of pulsar signals. Bispectra can be used as feature vectors of pulsar signals because of their being translation invariant. A one-dimension selected line spectrum algorithm for ex-tracting pulsar signal characteristic is proposed. Compared with selected bispectra, the pro-posed selected line spectra have the maximum interclass separability measurements from the point of view of the whole one-dimension feature vector. Recognition experiments on several pulsar signals received at several frequency bands are carried out. The result shows that the selected line spectrum algorithm is suitable for extracting pulsar signal characteristics and has a good classification performance.     

Interaction between nulls and emission in the pulsar B0834+06

We present a detailed study of the single pulses of the bright radio pulsar B0834+06, and offer evidence that the dominant periodic modulation in this pulsar's emission governs the occurrence of nulls. The nulls of B0834+06 constitute approximately 9 per cent of the total pulses and we demonstrate that they do not occur at random in the pulse sequence. On the contrary, they are found to occur preferentially close to the minimum of the pulsar's emission cycle, whose period jitters around a central value of P ₃≈ 2.17 rotation periods. It is likely that the intrinsic duration of the nulls averages about 0.2 times the pulsar rotation period. Surprisingly, the clearly distinct population of nulls and partial nulls of B0834+06 exhibit a two-peak profile slightly broader than that of the normal emission. This is in contrast to the profile of extremely weak normal pulses, which is narrower than the overall profile. A flow/counterflow model for the pulsar's two components can reproduce the essential observed features of the emission in its dominant mode, with nulls occurring at the point where the minima of the two systems are aligned. This suggests that the observed nulling rate is determined by the chance positioning of our sightline with respect to the system. If the flow is interpreted as part of a circulating carousel, a fit yields a best estimate of 14 'sparks'.     

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.     

An Accumulative Method of Pulsar Standard Profile Based on Wavelet-modulus-maxima Correlation Information

The importance of producing the pulsar standard pulse profile is discussed. By analyzing the classical pulse superposition method, a novel pulse profile accumulation method based on the wavelet-modulus-maxima information is proposed. First, the original observed data are divided into groups according to the pulse periods, and by making separately the wavelet decomposition, the wavelet coefficients characterizing the pulse peaks on coarse scales are obtained. Secondly, selecting a group of coefficients with a high SNR as the reference data and making correlations respectively with the other groups of coefficients, the relative time delays of pulse peaks are determined. Finally, the grouped original data are added up according to the relative time delays to obtain the pulse profile. With a prior estimation of the background noise and the smoothing processing of the signal, a normalized standard profile with a rather high SNR can be obtained. Practical experiments and comparison with the template correlation method indicate that this method is simple, effective, free of the necessity of designing an approximate template, and insensitive to noise type. It should be valuable for engineering applications.     

On measuring the gravitational-wave background using Pulsar Timing Arrays

The long-term precise timing of Galactic millisecond pulsars holds great promise for measuring the long-period (months to years) astrophysical gravitational waves. Several gravitational-wave observational programs, called Pulsar Timing Arrays (PTA), are being pursued around the world.
Here, we develop a Bayesian algorithm for measuring the stochastic gravitational-wave background (GWB) from the PTA data. Our algorithm has several strengths: (i) it analyses the data without any loss of information; (ii) it trivially removes systematic errors of known functional form, including quadratic pulsar spin-down, annual modulations and jumps due to a change of equipment; (iii) it measures simultaneously both the amplitude and the slope of the GWB spectrum and (iv) it can deal with unevenly sampled data and coloured pulsar noise spectra. We sample the likelihood function using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulations. We extensively test our approach on mock PTA data sets and find that the algorithm has significant benefits over currently proposed counterparts. We show the importance of characterizing all red noise components in pulsar timing noise by demonstrating that the presence of a red component would significantly hinder the detection of the GWB.
Lastly, we explore the dependence of the signal-to-noise ratio on the duration of the experiment, number of monitored pulsars and the magnitude of the pulsar timing noise. These parameter studies will help formulate observing strategies for the PTA experiments.     

Gamma-Ray Emission from Pulsar Outer Magnetospheres

We investigate a stationary pair production cascade in the outer magnetosphere of an isolated, spinning neutron star. The charge depletion due to global flows of charged particles, causes a large electric field along the magnetic field lines. Migratory electrons and/or positrons are accelerated by this field to radiate gamma-rays via curvature and inverse-Compton processes. Some of such gamma-rays collide with the X-rays to materialize as pairs in the gap. The replenished charges partially screen the electric field, which is self-consistently solved together with the energy distribution of particles and gamma-rays at each point along the field lines. By solving the set of Maxwell and Boltzmann equations, we demonstrate that an external injection of charged particles at nearly Goldreich-Julian rate does not quench the gap but shifts its position and that the particle energy distribution cannot be described by a power-law. The injected particles are accelerated in the gap and escape from it with large Lorentz factors. We show that such escaping particles migrating outside of the gap contribute significantly to the gamma-ray luminosity for young pulsars and that the soft gamma-ray spectrum between 100 MeV and 3 GeV observed for the Vela pulsar can be explained by this component. We also discuss that the luminosity of the gamma-rays emitted by the escaping particles is naturally proportional to the square root of the spin-down luminosity.