Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 72 |
| Number of pages | 9 |
| Journal | Astrophysical Journal |
| Volume | 834 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Jan 2017 |
Abstract
We report the discovery of two long-term intermittent radio pulsars in the ongoing Pulsar Arecibo L-Band Feed Array survey. Following discovery with the Arecibo Telescope, extended observations of these pulsars over several years at Jodrell Bank Observatory have revealed the details of their rotation and radiation properties. PSRs J1910+0517 and J1929+1357 show long-term extreme bimodal intermittency, switching between active (ON) and inactive (OFF) emission states and indicating the presence of a large, hitherto unrecognized underlying population of such objects. For PSR J1929+1357, the initial duty cycle was f ON = 0.008, but two years later, this changed quite abruptly to f ON = 0.16. This is the first time that a significant evolution in the activity of an intermittent pulsar has been seen, and we show that the spin-down rate of the pulsar is proportional to the activity. The spin-down rate of PSR J1929+1357 is increased by a factor of 1.8 when it is in active mode, similar to the increase seen in the other three known long-term intermittent pulsars. These discoveries increase the number of known pulsars displaying long-term intermittency to five. These five objects display a remarkably narrow range of spin-down power (Ė ∼ 1032 erg s-1) and accelerating potential above their polar caps. If confirmed by further discoveries, this trend might be important for understanding the physical mechanisms that cause intermittency.
Keywords
- pulsars: general, pulsars: individual (PSR J1910+0517, PSR J1929+1357)
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Physics and Astronomy(all)
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Space and Planetary Science
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In: Astrophysical Journal, Vol. 834, No. 1, 72, 01.01.2017.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Two long-term intermittent pulsars discovered in the PALFA Survey
AU - Lyne, A. G.
AU - Stappers, B. W.
AU - Freire, P. C.C.
AU - Hessels, J. W.T.
AU - Kaspi, V. M.
AU - Allen, B.
AU - Bogdanov, S.
AU - Brazier, A.
AU - Camilo, F.
AU - Cardoso, F.
AU - Chatterjee, S.
AU - Cordes, J. M.
AU - Crawford, F.
AU - Deneva, J. S.
AU - Ferdman, R.
AU - Jenet, F. A.
AU - Knispel, B.
AU - Lazarus, P.
AU - Leeuwen, J. Van
AU - Lynch, R.
AU - Madsen, E.
AU - McLaughlin, M. A.
AU - Parent, E.
AU - Patel, C.
AU - Ransom, S. M.
AU - Scholz, P.
AU - Seymour, A.
AU - Siemens, X.
AU - Spitler, L. G.
AU - Stairs, I. H.
AU - Stovall, K.
AU - Swiggum, J.
AU - Wharton, R. S.
AU - Zhu, W. W.
N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by Max Planck Gesellschaft and by NSF grants 1104902, 1105572, and 1148523. P.C.C.F., P.L., and L.G.S. gratefully acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council for the ERC Starting Grant BEACON under contract no. 279702. J.v.L. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council under the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme (FP/2007-2013)/ERC Grant Agreement No. 617199.
PY - 2017/1/1
Y1 - 2017/1/1
N2 - We report the discovery of two long-term intermittent radio pulsars in the ongoing Pulsar Arecibo L-Band Feed Array survey. Following discovery with the Arecibo Telescope, extended observations of these pulsars over several years at Jodrell Bank Observatory have revealed the details of their rotation and radiation properties. PSRs J1910+0517 and J1929+1357 show long-term extreme bimodal intermittency, switching between active (ON) and inactive (OFF) emission states and indicating the presence of a large, hitherto unrecognized underlying population of such objects. For PSR J1929+1357, the initial duty cycle was f ON = 0.008, but two years later, this changed quite abruptly to f ON = 0.16. This is the first time that a significant evolution in the activity of an intermittent pulsar has been seen, and we show that the spin-down rate of the pulsar is proportional to the activity. The spin-down rate of PSR J1929+1357 is increased by a factor of 1.8 when it is in active mode, similar to the increase seen in the other three known long-term intermittent pulsars. These discoveries increase the number of known pulsars displaying long-term intermittency to five. These five objects display a remarkably narrow range of spin-down power (Ė ∼ 1032 erg s-1) and accelerating potential above their polar caps. If confirmed by further discoveries, this trend might be important for understanding the physical mechanisms that cause intermittency.
AB - We report the discovery of two long-term intermittent radio pulsars in the ongoing Pulsar Arecibo L-Band Feed Array survey. Following discovery with the Arecibo Telescope, extended observations of these pulsars over several years at Jodrell Bank Observatory have revealed the details of their rotation and radiation properties. PSRs J1910+0517 and J1929+1357 show long-term extreme bimodal intermittency, switching between active (ON) and inactive (OFF) emission states and indicating the presence of a large, hitherto unrecognized underlying population of such objects. For PSR J1929+1357, the initial duty cycle was f ON = 0.008, but two years later, this changed quite abruptly to f ON = 0.16. This is the first time that a significant evolution in the activity of an intermittent pulsar has been seen, and we show that the spin-down rate of the pulsar is proportional to the activity. The spin-down rate of PSR J1929+1357 is increased by a factor of 1.8 when it is in active mode, similar to the increase seen in the other three known long-term intermittent pulsars. These discoveries increase the number of known pulsars displaying long-term intermittency to five. These five objects display a remarkably narrow range of spin-down power (Ė ∼ 1032 erg s-1) and accelerating potential above their polar caps. If confirmed by further discoveries, this trend might be important for understanding the physical mechanisms that cause intermittency.
KW - pulsars: general
KW - pulsars: individual (PSR J1910+0517, PSR J1929+1357)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85010066601&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.48550/arXiv.1608.09008
DO - 10.48550/arXiv.1608.09008
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85010066601
VL - 834
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
SN - 0004-637X
IS - 1
M1 - 72
ER -