scholarly journals The Effect of Light Bending and Redshift on Pulsar Beaming: The Case of Shorter Rotation Periods

1992 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 225-227
Author(s):  
R. C. Kapoor

AbstractAn estimate of the effect of light bending and redshift on pulsar beam characteristics has been made using a weak Kerr metric for the case of a 1.4 M⊙ neutron star with a radius in the range 6-10 km and rotation periods of 1.56 ms and 33 ms, respectively. Assuming that the pulsar emission has the form of a narrow conical beam directed away from the surface and is located within two stellar radii, the beam is found to be widened by a factor of ≤ 2 and to suffer a reduction in the intensity (flattening of the profile) by an order of magnitude or less. The effect is largest for the most rapidly rotating the neutron stars. For an emission region located beyond 20 km, the flattening is generally insignificant. The pulse profile is slightly asymmetrical due to dragging of the inertial frames. For millisecond periods, aberration tends to reverse the flattening effect of space-time curvature by narrowing the pulse and can completely overcome it for emission from a location beyond ≃30km. Although the pulse must slightly brighten up, a large redshift factor overcomes this effect to keep the pulse flattened for all neutron star radii considered here.

1992 ◽  
Vol 128 ◽  
pp. 214-216
Author(s):  
J. M. Weisberg ◽  
J. H. Taylor

AbstractAccording to general relativity, the spin axis of binary pulsar PSR 1913+16 should precess at a rate of 1.21 degrees per year. This precession will cause the pulse profile to change as our line of sight samples different pulsar latitudes. In order to search for this phenomenon, we have carefully monitored the pulse profile at 1408 MHz for 8.5 years. The ratio of flux density of the first to second pulse component has declined at a rate of approximately 1.65% per year, with some evidence of a steeper decrease over the past three years. We have detected no evidence for a change in the separation of the two components. We discuss the nature of the pulsar emission region in light of these results.


1996 ◽  
Vol 160 ◽  
pp. 287-288
Author(s):  
Jaroslaw Kijak ◽  
Janusz A. Gil

We verify the relationship proposed by Kijak and Gil (1996) for the pulsar radio emission altitudes(see also Eq.3 in Gil & Krawczyk, 1996), using the pulse-profile Effelsberg raw data at 1.41 GHz. We measured profile pulse-widths at the lowest intensity level corresponding to 0.01% of the maximum intensity (Fig. 1b), using the polarlog-scale technique (Hankins and Fowler, 1986). We calculated opening angles (Fig. 1a) and emission altitudes (Fig. 1c) assuming that:i) pulsar radiation is narrow-band with radius-to-frequency mapping operating in the emission region,ii) pulsar emission is beamed tangentially to the dipolar magnetic field lines,iii) the extreme profile wings originate near or at the last open field lines.


2020 ◽  
Vol 639 ◽  
pp. A75
Author(s):  
Q. Giraud ◽  
J. Pétri

Context. According to current pulsar emission models, photons are produced within their magnetosphere and current sheet, along their separatrix, which is located inside and outside the light cylinder. Radio emission is favoured in the vicinity of the polar caps, whereas the high-energy counterpart is presumably enhanced in regions around the light cylinder, whether this is the magnetosphere and/or the wind. However, the gravitational effect on their light curves and spectral properties has only been sparsely researched. Aims. We present a method for simulating the influence that the gravitational field of the neutron star has on its emission properties according to the solution of a rotating dipole evolving in a slowly rotating neutron star metric described by general relativity. Methods. We numerically computed photon trajectories assuming a background Schwarzschild metric, applying our method to neutron star radiation mechanisms such as thermal emission from hot spots and non-thermal magnetospheric emission by curvature radiation. We detail the general-relativistic effects onto observations made by a distant observer. Results. Sky maps are computed using the vacuum electromagnetic field of a general-relativistic rotating dipole, extending previous works obtained for the Deutsch solution. We compare Newtonian results to their general-relativistic counterpart. For magnetospheric emission, we show that aberration and curvature of photon trajectories as well as Shapiro time delay significantly affect the phase delay between radio and high-energy light curves, although the characteristic pulse profile that defines pulsar emission is kept.


2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (1) ◽  
pp. 310-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lucy Oswald ◽  
Aris Karastergiou ◽  
Simon Johnston

ABSTRACT The frequency widening of pulsar profiles is commonly attributed to lower frequencies being produced at greater heights above the surface of the pulsar; so-called radius-to-frequency mapping (RFM). The observer’s view of pulsar emission is a 1D cut through a 3D magnetosphere: we can only see that emission which points along our line of sight. However, by comparing the frequency evolution of many single pulses positioned at different phases, we can build up an understanding of the shape of the active emission region. We use single pulses observed with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope to investigate the emission region of PSR J1136+1551 and test RFM. Assuming that emission is produced tangential to the magnetic field lines and that each emission frequency corresponds to a single height, we simulate the single pulse profile evolution resulting from the canonical conal beam model and a fan beam model. Comparing the results of these simulations with the observations, we conclude that the emission region of PSR J1136+1551 is better described by the fan beam model. The diversity of profile widening behaviour observed for the single pulses can be explained by orthogonally polarized modes propagating along differing frequency-dependent paths in the magnetosphere.


2020 ◽  
Vol 641 ◽  
pp. A166
Author(s):  
Juri Poutanen

The X-ray radiation produced on the surface of accreting magnetised neutron stars is expected to be strongly polarised. A swing of the polarisation vector with the pulsar phase gives a direct measure of the source inclination and magnetic obliquity. In the case of rapidly rotating millisecond pulsars, the relativistic motion of the emission region causes additional rotation of the polarisation plane. Here, we develop a relativistic rotating vector model, where we derive analytical expression for the polarisation angle as a function of the pulsar phase accounting for relativistic aberration and gravitational light bending in the Schwarzschild metric. We show that in the case of fast pulsars the rotation of the polarisation plane can reach tens of degrees, strongly influencing the observed shape of the polarisation angle’s phase dependence. The rotation angle grows nearly linearly with the spin rate but it is less sensitive to the neutron star radius. Overall, this angle is large even for large spots. Our results have implications with regard to the modelling of X-ray polarisation from accreting millisecond pulsars that are to be observed with the upcoming Imaging X-ray Polarimeter Explorer and the enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry mission. The X-ray polarisation may improve constraints on the neutron star mass and radius coming from the pulse profile modelling.


2020 ◽  
Vol 493 (1) ◽  
pp. L6-L10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra N Tang ◽  
J J Eldridge ◽  
Elizabeth R Stanway ◽  
J C Bray

ABSTRACT We compare the impacts of uncertainties in both binary population synthesis models and the cosmic star formation history on the predicted rates of gravitational wave (GW) compact binary merger events. These uncertainties cause the predicted rates of GW events to vary by up to an order of magnitude. Varying the volume-averaged star formation rate density history of the Universe causes the weakest change to our predictions, while varying the metallicity evolution has the strongest effect. Double neutron star merger rates are more sensitive to assumed neutron star kick velocity than the cosmic star formation history. Varying certain parameters affects merger rates in different ways depending on the mass of the merging compact objects; thus some of the degeneracy may be broken by looking at all the event rates rather than restricting ourselves to one class of mergers.


2000 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 335-340
Author(s):  
F. E. Marshall ◽  
E. V. Gotthelf ◽  
J. Middleditch ◽  
Q. D. Wang ◽  
W. Zhang

AbstractThe recently discovered pulsar PSR J0537-6910 is the most rapidly rotating young pulsar known. This latest example of a Crab-like pulsar, located in the supernova remnant N157B in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is rotating twice as fast as the Crab pulsar. With a characteristic age of 5000 years, it is also the oldest known example of a Crab-like pulsar and was likely rotating close to the maximum rate for a neutron star when it was born. Here we report preliminary results from an intensive monitoring campaign of X-ray observations acquired with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer that began in January 1999. These observation have revealed a large glitch event in the pulse timing during the first six month of our campaign, consistent with those suggested by sparse observations dating back to 1993. The current evolution of the rotation rate of PSR J0537-6910 provides a unique probe of the internal structure of neutron stars and constraints on possible pulsar emission mechanisms.


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