We report on a detailed study of the mode switching in pulsar J1326−6700 by analyzing the data acquired from the Parkes 64 m radio telescope at 1369 MHz. During the abnormal mode, the emission at the central and trailing components becomes extremely weak. Meanwhile, the leading emission shifts toward earlier longitude by almost 2°, and remains in this position for typically less than a minute. The mean flux density of the normal mode is almost five times that of the abnormal mode. Our data show that, for PSR J1326−6700, 85% of the time was spent in the normal mode and 15% was in the abnormal mode. The intrinsic distributions of mode timescales can be well described by Weibull distributions, which present a certain amount of memory in mode switching. Furthermore, a quasiperiodicity has been identified in the mode switching in pulsar J1326−6700. The estimated delay emission heights based on the kinematical effects indicate that the abnormal mode may have originated from higher altitude than the normal mode.
We report on the pulse-to-pulse energy distribution and longitude-resolved modulation properties of PSR J1631+1252 discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. Our analysis made use of the data acquired at 1250 MHz from the follow-up timing observations that lasted over a year. PSR J1631+1252 has a rotational period of ∼0.310 s, and a dispersion measure of ∼32.73 pc cm−3. The energy distribution is well described by a lognormal distribution, the parameters of which do not vary with time. We show that large modulation occurs across the bridge emission of the pulse profile, with sporadic bright bursts at the leading emission region. The fluctuation spectral analysis reveals the existence of subpulse drifting in the leading component with vertical spacing between the drift bands of 3.28 ± 0.08 pulse periods between consecutive drift bands. Possible physical mechanisms for subpulse drifting are discussed.
We report on the detection of 146 (0.96%) bright pulses with a peak flux density >0.86 Jy from PSR B0031–07 in 4 hr of continuous observations made at 4.82 GHz, with a bandwidth of 1 GHz, using the Shanghai Tian Ma 65 m radio telescope. We find that the peak flux density distribution follows a power law with index α = −3.6 ± 0.2, while the pulse energy appears to follow a logarithmic normal distribution. The bright pulses from PSR B0031–07 were observed to repeat in an irregular fashion. The intervals between bright pulses can be described with an exponentiated Weibull distribution. Furthermore, the sensitive observations at higher frequency with a short time resolution of 65.54 μs form a reliable basis for detailed microstructure studies. Close inspection of the detected bright pulses reveals that 38 pulses exhibit well-defined quasi-periodicities. No unanimous period for the quasi-periodicities is found, and the peak flux density is independent of the micropulse width. Finally, possible physical mechanisms are discussed.
We report on the discovery of drifting subpulses from the Vela pulsar, observed using the Yunnan 40 m radio telescope at 6800 MHz observing frequency. The single pulses show the presence of two distinct drifting patterns, where the central component is modulated in longitude and amplitude simultaneously with a period of 9 pulses, and the trailing component remains phase stationary within the pulse window but periodically changes in intensity with a period of 29 pulses. The leading component emission remains constant in intensity and pulse phase. Such periodic modulation in the Vela pulsar is a separate phenomenon from periodic nulling and traditional subpulse drifting, which may lead to a greater understanding of the pulse emission mechanism.
4 May 2023 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
The follow-up timing observations were carried out for 24 pulsars discovered with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) in Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS). We report their phase-connected timing ephemeris, polarization pulse profiles and Faraday rotation measurements. With their spin periods spanning from 2.995 ms to 4.34 s, their period derivative were determined to spread between 7.996(8) × 10−21 s/s and 9.83(3) × 10−15 s/s, which imply that they have characteristic ages from 1.97 × 106 yr to 5.93 × 109 yr. It is inferred that PSRs J0211+4235 and J0518+2431 are beyond the ‘traditional death line’. PSR J0211+4235 is beyond the ‘death valley’. The death line model of Zhang et al (2000) also cannot explain the radio presence of PSR J0211+4235. This suggests that radiation theory needs to be improved. Besides, ten of the 22 canonical pulsars show nulling phenomena. Moreover, PSR J1617+1123 exhibits variation of emission and J0540+4542 shows subpulse drifting. The DM of five pulsars is larger than the estimated by the YMW16 electron density model, which could suggest that electron density models need updates for higher Galactic latitude regions. PSRs J0447+2447 and J1928−0548 are isolated millisecond pulsars. With their flux densities spanning from 5(1) μJy – 553(106) μJy, some of these new pulsars found by FAST are distant, dim, and low-|$\dot{E}$| ones and are suitable for testing pulsar emission theories.
In this study, we report on a detailed single-pulse analysis of the radio emission from a rotating radio transient (RRAT) J1918−0449, which is discovered with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). The sensitive observations were carried out on 2021 April 30 using the FAST with a central frequency of 1250 MHz and a short time resolution of 49.152 μs, which forms a reliable basis to probe single-pulse emission properties in detail. The source was successively observed for around 2 hr. A total of 83 dispersed bursts with significance above 6σ are detected over 1.8 hr. The source’s dispersion measure (DM) and rotational period are determined to be 116.1 ± 0.4 pc cm−3 and 2479.21 ± 0.03 ms, respectively. The share of registered pulses from the total number of observed periods is 3.12%. No underlying emission is detected in the averaged off-pulse profile. For bursts with fluence larger than 10 Jy ms, the pulse energy follows a power-law distribution with an index of −3.1 ± 0.4, suggesting the existence of bright pulse emission. We find that the distribution of time between subsequent pulses is consistent with a stationary Poisson process and find no evidence of clustering over the 1.8 hr observations, giving a mean burst rate of one burst every 66 s. Close inspection of the detected bright pulses reveals that 21 pulses exhibit well-defined quasiperiodicities. The subpulse drifting is present in nonsuccessive rotations with periodicity of 2.51 ± 0.06 periods. Finally, possible physical mechanisms are discussed.