Pulsars, transients and relativistic astrophysics

Abstract:

We present pulse width measurements for a sample of radio pulsars observed with the MeerKAT telescope as part of the Thousand-Pulsar-Array (TPA) programme in the MeerTime project. For a centre frequency of 1284 MHz, we obtain 762 $W_{10}$ measurements across the total bandwidth of 775 MHz, where $W_{10}$ is the width at the 10% level of the pulse peak. We also measure about 400 $W_{10}$ values in each of the four or eight frequency sub-bands. Assuming, the width is a function of the rotation period P, this relationship can be described with a power law with power law index $\mu=-0.29\pm 0.03$. However, using orthogonal distance regression, we determine a steeper power law with $\mu=-0.63\pm 0.06$. A density plot of the period-width data reveals such a fit to align well with the contours of highest density. Building on a previous population synthesis model, we obtain population-based estimates of the obliquity of the magnetic axis with respect to the rotation axis for our pulsars. Investigating the width changes over frequency, we unambiguously identify a group of pulsars that have width broadening at higher frequencies. The measured width changes show a monotonic behaviour with frequency for the whole TPA pulsar population, whether the pulses are becoming narrower or broader with increasing frequency. We exclude a sensitivity bias, scattering and noticeable differences in the pulse component numbers as explanations for these width changes, and attempt an explanation using a qualitative model of five contributing Gaussian pulse components with flux density spectra that depend on their rotational phase.

Abstract:

Cyclotron line scattering features are detected in a few tens of X-ray pulsars (XRPs) and used as direct indicators of a strong magnetic field at the surface of accreting neutron stars (NSs). In a few cases, cyclotron lines are known to be variable with accretion luminosity of XRPs. It is accepted that the observed variations of cyclotron line scattering features are related to variations of geometry and dynamics of accretion flow above the magnetic poles of a NS. A positive correlation between the line centroid energy and luminosity is typical for sub-critical XRPs, where the accretion results in hot spots at the magnetic poles. The negative correlation was proposed to be a specific feature of bright super-critical XRPs, where radiation pressure supports accretion columns above the stellar surface. Cyclotron line in spectra of Be-transient X-ray pulsar GRO J1008-57 is detected at energies from $\sim 75 -90$ keV, the highest observed energy of cyclotron line feature in XRPs. We report the peculiar relation of cyclotron line centroid energies with luminosity in GRO J1008-57 during the Type II outburst in August 2017 observed by Insight-HXMT. The cyclotron line energy was detected to be negatively correlated with the luminosity at $3.2\times 10^{37}\,\ergs

Abstract:

We report on a timing programme of 74 young pulsars that have been observed by the Parkes 64-m radio telescope over the past decade. Using modern Bayesian timing techniques, we have measured the properties of 124 glitches in 52 of these pulsars, of which 74 are new. We demonstrate that the glitch sample is complete to fractional increases in spin-frequency greater than $\Delta\nu^{90\%}_{g}/\nu \approx 8.1 \times 10^{-9}$. We measure values of the braking index, $n$, in 33 pulsars. In most of these pulsars, their rotational evolution is dominated by episodes of spin-down with $n > 10$, punctuated by step changes in the spin-down rate at the time of a large glitch. The step changes are such that, averaged over the glitches, the long-term $n$ is small. We find a near one-to-one relationship between the inter-glitch value of $n$ and the change in spin-down of the previous glitch divided by the inter-glitch time interval. We discuss the results in the context of a range of physical models.