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'.     

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.     

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.     

面向单脉冲信号分类的集成特征选择与评价

受大量射频干扰信号影响, 快速从海量观测数据中准确识别出单脉冲信号已成为天文数据处理的一项重要任务, 而设计和提取有效数据特征, 是利用机器学习进行单脉冲信号高效识别的决定因素. 针对如何选择最优特征, 进而提升单脉冲信号的分类精度这一关键问题, 设计了面向单脉冲信号分类的集成特征选择方法. 方法首先混合单脉冲信号的参数特征、统计特征和抽象特征, 然后分别利用5种单一特征选择方法选出各自的最优特征集, 最后利用贪心策略对5种单一方法获取的最优特征集进行集成筛选, 获取最优集成特征集. 实验表明, 最优特征集合既包含统计特征也包含抽象特征. 在相同特征数量下, 利用集成特征选择比单一特征选择能获得更高的模型精度, 可使F1值最高提升1.8%. 在海量数据背景下, 集成特征选择对减少特征数量、提升分类性能和加快数据处理速度具有重要作用.     

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.     

Formation of the radio profile components of the Crab pulsar

The induced Compton scattering of radio emission off the particles of the ultrarelativistic electron–positron plasma in the open field line tube of a pulsar is considered. We examine the scattering of a bright narrow radio beam into the background over a wide solid angle and specifically study the scattering in the transverse regime, which holds in a moderately strong magnetic field and gives rise to the scattered component nearly antiparallel to the streaming velocity of the scattering particles. Making use of the angular distribution of the scattered intensity and taking into account the effect of rotational aberration in the scattering region, we simulate the profiles of the backscattered components as applied to the Crab pulsar. It is suggested that the interpulse (IP), the high-frequency interpulse (IP') and the pair of so-called high-frequency components (HFC1 and HFC2) result from the backward scattering of the main pulse (MP), precursor (PR) and low-frequency component (LFC), respectively. The components of the high-frequency profiles, the IP' and HFCs, are interpreted for the first time. The HFC1 and HFC2 are argued to be a single component split by the rotational aberration close to the light cylinder. It is demonstrated that the observed spectral and polarization properties of the profile components of the Crab pulsar as well as the giant pulse phenomenon outside the MP can be explained in terms of our model.     

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.     

Angular momentum alignment of dark matter haloes

In the three years following the discovery of PSR J2051−0827, we have observed a large number of eclipse traverses over a wide frequency range. These data show that the pulsar usually undergoes complete eclipse at frequencies below 1 GHz. At higher frequencies the pulsar is often detected throughout this low-frequency eclipse region with pulse times of arrival being significantly delayed relative to the best-fitting timing model. Variability in the magnitude of the delay is clearly seen and occurs on time-scales shorter than the orbital period. Simultaneous dual frequency observations highlight the difference in the eclipse behaviour for two widely separated frequencies. The low-frequency eclipses are accompanied by a significant decrease in pulsed flux density, while the flux density variations during higher frequency eclipses are not well defined. We consider a number of eclipse mechanisms and find that scattering and cyclotron absorption in the magnetosphere of the companion are consistent with the phenomena presented here.     

A Study on the Pulse Profiles of the HMXB 4U 1901+03

After a silence of some 32 years, the high-mass X-ray binary (HMXB) 4U1901+03 produced an outburst in Feb. 2003. With the observed data of RXTE (Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer) over a 5 month duration, we have made a systematic study of the pulse profile of this source, and obtained its time evolution and its correlation with the photon energy. It is found that the variations of the pulse profile and the pulse fraction with the accretion rate of the binary system exhibit a stepwise evolution, and that the pulse fraction reaches its peak at energies under ten KeV. The complex variation of the pulse profile indicates that the pulse profile can not be explained by a single geometrical or physical model, rather, it must be related with both the viewing angle and the radiation mechanism. The observed features are here discussed in terms of the standard radiation model of pulsars.     

Boltzmann approach to the large-angle cosmic X-ray background fluctuations

Large-angle fluctuations in the cosmic X-ray background are investigated by a new formalism with a simple model of the X-ray sources. Our method is formulated from the Boltzmann equation and a simple extension of the work by Lahav et al. to be applicable to a hyperbolic (open) universe. The low multipole fluctuations due to the source clustering are analysed in various cosmological models in both numerical and analytic ways. The fluctuations strongly depend on the X-ray source evolution model, as pointed out previously. It turns out that the nearby ( z  ≲ 0.1) sources are the dominant contributors to the large-angle fluctuations. If these nearby sources are removed in an observed X-ray map, the dipole (low multipole) moment of the fluctuation drastically decreases. In this case the Compton–Getting effect of an observer's motion can be a dominant contribution to the dipole fluctuation. This feature of fluctuation, relating to the matter power spectrum, is discussed.     

Unveiling the thermal and magnetic map of neutron star surfaces though their X-ray emission: method and light-curve analysis

Recent Chandra and XMM–Newton observations of a number of X-ray 'dim' pulsating neutron stars have revealed quite unexpected features in the emission from these sources. Their soft thermal spectrum, believed to originate directly from the star surface, shows evidence for a phase-varying absorption line at some hundred eVs. The pulse modulation is relatively large (pulsed fractions in the range ∼12–35 per cent), the pulse shape is often non-sinusoidal, and the hard X-ray colour appears to be anticorrelated in phase with the total emission. Moreover, the prototype of this class, RX J0720.4−3125, has been found to undergo rather sensible changes in both its spectral and timing properties over a time-scale of a few years. All these new findings seem difficult to reconcile with the standard picture of a cooling neutron star endowed with a purely dipolar magnetic field, at least if surface emission is produced in an atmosphere on top of the crust. In this paper we explore how a dipolar+quadrupolar star-centred field influences the properties of the observed light curves. The phase-resolved spectrum has been evaluated accounting for both radiative transfer in a magnetized atmosphere and general relativistic ray-bending. We computed over 78 000 light curves, varying the quadrupolar components and the viewing geometry. A comparison of the data with our model indicates that higher-order multipoles are required to reproduce the observations.     

Pulsating microwave emission from the star AD Leo

We have performed a spectral analysis of the quasi-periodic low-frequency modulation of microwave emission from a flare on the star AD Leo. We used the observations of the May 19, 1997 flare in the frequency range 4.5–5.1 GHz with a total duration of the burst phase of about 50 s obtained in Effelsberg with a time resolution of 1 ms. The time profile of the radio emission was analyzed by using the Wigner-Ville transformation, which yielded the dynamic spectrum of low-frequency pulsations with a satisfactory frequency-time resolution. In addition to the noise component, two regular components were found to be present in the low-frequency modulation spectrum of the stellar radio emission: a quasi-periodic component whose frequency smoothly decreased during the flare from ～2 to ～0.2 Hz and a periodic sequence of pulses with a repetition rate of about 2 Hz, which was approximately constant during the flare. We consider the possibility of the combined effect of MHD and LCR oscillations of the radio source on the particle acceleration in the stellar atmosphere and give estimates of the source’s parameters that follow from an analysis of the low-frequency modulation spectra.     

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.     

Circular scans for cosmic microwave background anisotropy observation and analysis

A number of experiments for measuring anisotropies of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) use scanning strategies in which temperature fluctuations are measured along circular scans on the sky. It is possible, from a large number of such intersecting circular scans, to build two-dimensional sky maps for subsequent analysis. However, since instrumental effects — especially the excess low-frequency 1/ f noise — project on to such two-dimensional maps in a non-trivial way, we discuss the analysis approach which focuses on information contained in the individual circular scans. This natural way of looking at CMB data from experiments scanning on the circles combines the advantages of elegant simplicity of Fourier series for the computation of statistics useful for constraining cosmological scenarios, and superior efficiency in analysing and quantifying most of the crucial instrumental effects.     

On the randomness of pulsar nulls

Pulsar nulling is not always a random process; most pulsars, in fact, null non-randomly. The Wald–Wolfowitz statistical runs test is a simple diagnostic that pulsar astronomers can use to identify pulsars that have non-random nulls. It is not clear at this point how the dichotomy in pulsar nulling randomness is related to the underlying nulling phenomenon, but its nature suggests that there are at least two distinct reasons that pulsars null.     

Accretion disc variability in the hard state of black hole X-ray binaries

XMM–Newton X-ray spectra of the hard state black hole X-ray binaries (BHXRBs) SWIFT J1753.5−0127 and GX 339−4 show evidence for accretion disc blackbody emission, in addition to hard power laws. The soft and hard band power spectral densities (PSDs) of these sources demonstrate variability over a wide range of time-scales. However, on time-scales of tens of seconds, corresponding to the putative low-frequency Lorentzian in the PSD, there is additional power in the soft band. To interpret this behaviour, we introduce a new spectral analysis technique, the 'covariance spectrum', to disentangle the contribution of the X-ray spectral components to variations on different time-scales. We use this technique to show that the disc blackbody component varies on all time-scales, but varies more, relative to the power law, on longer time-scales. This behaviour explains the additional long-term variability seen in the soft band. Comparison of the blackbody and iron line normalizations seen in the covariance spectra in GX 339−4 implies that the short-term blackbody variations are driven by thermal reprocessing of the power-law continuum absorbed by the disc. However, since the amplitude of variable reflection is the same on long and short time-scales, we rule out reprocessing as the cause of the enhanced disc variability on long time-scales. Therefore, we conclude that the long time-scale blackbody variations are caused by instabilities in the disc itself, in contrast to the stable discs seen in BHXRB soft states. Our results provide the first observational evidence that the low-frequency Lorentzian feature present in the PSD is produced by the accretion disc.     

Simultaneous multifrequency single-pulse properties of AXP XTE J1810–197

We have used the 76-m Lovell, 94-m equivalent Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) and 100-m Effelsberg radio telescopes to investigate the simultaneous single-pulse properties of the radio emitting magnetar Anomalous X-ray Pulsar (AXP) XTE J1810−197 at frequencies of 1.4, 4.8 and 8.35 GHz during 2006 May and July. We study the magnetar's pulse-energy distributions which are found to be very peculiar as they are changing on time-scales of days and cannot be fit by a single statistical model. The magnetar exhibits strong spiky single giant-pulse-like subpulses, but they do not fit the definition of the giant pulse or giant micropulse phenomena. Measurements of the longitude-resolved modulation index reveal a high degree of intensity fluctuations on day-to-day time-scales and dramatic changes across pulse phase. We find the frequency evolution of the modulation index values differs significantly from what is observed in normal radio pulsars. We find that no regular drifting subpulse phenomenon is present at any of the observed frequencies at any observing epoch. However, we find a quasi-periodicity of the subpulses present in the majority of the observing sessions. A correlation analysis indicates a relationship between components from different frequencies. We discuss the results of our analysis in light of the emission properties of normal radio pulsars and a recently proposed model which takes radio emission from magnetars into consideration.     

Phase-resolved Faraday rotation in pulsars

We have detected significant rotation measure (RM) variations for nine bright pulsars, as a function of pulse longitude. An additional sample of 10 pulsars showed a rather constant RM with phase, yet a small degree of RM fluctuation is visible in at least three of those cases. In all cases, we have found that the rotation of the polarization position angle across our 1.4 GHz observing band is consistent with the  λ²  law of interstellar Faraday rotation. We provide for the first time convincing evidence that RM variations across the pulse are largely due to interstellar scattering, although we cannot exclude that magnetospheric Faraday rotation may still have a minor contribution; alternative explanations of this phenomenon, like erroneous de-dispersion and the presence of non-orthogonal polarization modes, are excluded. If the observed, phase-resolved RM variations are common amongst pulsars, then many of the previously measured pulsar RMs may be in error by as much as a few tens of rad m⁻².     

Shapiro effect as a possible cause of the low-frequency pulsar timing noise in globular clusters

A prolonged timing of millisecond pulsars has revealed low-frequency uncorrelated (infrared) noise, presumably of astrophysical origin, in the pulse arrival time (PAT) residuals for some of them. Currently available pulsar timing methods allow the statistical parameters of this noise to be reliably measured by decomposing the PAT residual function into orthogonal Fourier harmonics. In most cases, pulsars in globular clusters show a low-frequency modulation of their rotational phase and spin rate. The relativistic time delay of the pulsar signal in the curved spacetime of randomly distributed and moving globular cluster stars (the Shapiro effect) is suggested as a possible cause of this modulation. Extremely important (from an astrophysical point of view) information about the structure of the globular cluster core, which is inaccessible to study by other observational methods, could be obtained by analyzing the spectral parameters of the low-frequency noise caused by the Shapiro effect and attributable to the random passages of stars near the line of sight to the pulsar. Given the smallness of the aberration corrections that arise from the nonstationarity of the gravitational field of the randomly distributed ensemble of stars under consideration, a formula is derived for the Shapiro effect for a pulsar in a globular cluster. The derived formula is used to calculate the autocorrelation function of the low-frequency pulsar noise, the slope of its power spectrum, and the behavior of the σ_z statistic that characterizes the spectral properties of this noise in the form of a time function. The Shapiro effect under discussion is shown to manifest itself for large impact parameters as a low-frequency noise of the pulsar spin rate with a spectral index of n = −1.8 that depends weakly on the specific model distribution of stars in the globular cluster. For small impact parameters, the spectral index of the noise is n = −1.5.     

The 21-cm power spectrum after reionization

We discuss the 21-cm power spectrum (PS) following the completion of reionization. In contrast to the reionization era, this PS is proportional to the PS of mass density fluctuations, with only a small modulation due to fluctuations in the ionization field on scales larger than the mean-free-path of ionizing photons. We derive the form of this modulation, and demonstrate that its effect on the 21-cm PS will be smaller than 1 per cent for physically plausible models of damped Lyα systems. In contrast to the 21-cm PS observed prior to reionization, in which H  ii regions dominate the ionization structure, the simplicity of the 21-cm PS after reionization will enhance its utility as a cosmological probe by removing the need to separate the PS into physical and astrophysical components. As a demonstration, we consider the Alcock–Paczynski test and show that the next generation of low-frequency arrays could measure the angular distortion of the PS at the per cent level for   z ∼ 3–5  .