No Arabic abstract
We report on a detailed analysis of the radio emission during the different modes of the pulsar J0826+2637 (B0823+26), observed using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope at 306-339 MHz observing frequencies. The pulsar profile has a postcursor and interpulse emission in addition to the main pulse. The single pulses showed the presence of nulling, periodic fluctuation in the emission as well as two prominent modes. In addition the pulsar also showed the presence of a null state where no emission was seen for roughly an hour which was immediately followed by a short duration ($sim$5 minutes) bright state termed the Q-bright state. The nulling varied significantly in the two modes, from a few percent nulls in B-mode to more than 90 percent nulling during the Q-mode. Additionally, the pulsar showed the presence of low level emission in both the interpulse and postcursor components when the main pulse nulled in B-mode. We detected periodic fluctuations in both the main pulse and postcursor during B-mode which were most likely a form of periodic amplitude modulation unrelated to subpulse drifting. We have also detected the appearance of periodicity during the transitions from the null to the burst states in the Q-mode, which was longer than the B-mode modulations. Our analysis further revealed a significant increase in the main pulse and post-cursor intensity during the transition from the Q-mode to the short duration Q-bright mode. On the other hand no commensurate variation was visible in the interpulse intensity.
We present results of the analysis of interstellar scintillation in PSR B0823+26. Observations were conducted at a frequency of 1.7 GHz using the 32-m Torun Centre for Astronomy radio telescope. More than 50 observing sessions, lasting on average 10 h, were conducted between 2003 and 2006. We found interstellar scintillation parameters by means of dynamic spectrum analysis as well as structure function analysis of the flux density variations. We identified two distinctive time-scales, which we believe to be the time-scales of diffractive and refractive scintillation. Our results show that at the given frequency the diffractive time-scale in PSR B0823+26 is $tau_{diss} = 19.3^{+1.7}_{-1.6}$ min, the refractive time-scale is $tau_{riss} = 144 pm 23$ min and the decorrelation bandwidth is $B_{iss} = 81 pm 3$ MHz.
Simultaneous observations of PSR B0823+26 with ESAs XMM-Newton, the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope and international stations of the Low Frequency Array revealed synchronous X-ray/radio switching between a radio-bright (B) mode and a radio-quiet (Q) mode. During the B mode we detected PSR B0823+26 in 0.2$-$2 keV X-rays and discovered pulsed emission with a broad sinusoidal pulse, lagging the radio main pulse by 0.208 $pm$ 0.012 in phase, with high pulsed fraction of 70$-$80%. During the Q mode PSR B0823+26 was not detected in X-rays (2 $sigma$ upper limit a factor ~9 below the B-mode flux). The total X-ray spectrum, pulse profile and pulsed fraction can globally be reproduced with a magnetized partially ionized hydrogen atmosphere model with three emission components: a primary small hot spot ($T$$sim$3.6$times10^6$ K, $R$$sim$17 m), a larger cooler concentric ring ($T$$sim$1.1$times10^6$ K, $R$$sim$280 m) and an antipodal hot spot ($T$$sim$1.1$times10^6 $ K, $R$$sim$100 m), for the angle between the rotation axis and line of sight direction $sim66^circ$. The latter is in conflict with the radio derived value of $(84pm0.7)^circ$. The average X-ray flux within hours-long B-mode intervals varied by a factor $pm$20%, possibly correlated with variations in the frequency and lengths of short radio nulls or short durations of weak emission. The correlated X-ray/radio moding of PSR B0823+26 is compared with the anti-correlated moding of PSR B0943+10, and the lack of X-ray moding of PSR B1822-09. We speculate that the X-ray/radio switches of PSR B0823+26 are due to variations in the rate of accretion of material from the interstellar medium through which it is passing.
PSR B0823+26, a 0.53-s radio pulsar, displays a host of emission phenomena over timescales of seconds to (at least) hours, including nulling, subpulse drifting, and mode-changing. Studying pulsars like PSR B0823+26 provides further insight into the relationship between these various emission phenomena and what they might teach us about pulsar magnetospheres. Here we report on the LOFAR discovery that PSR B0823+26 has a weak and sporadically emitting quiet (Q) emission mode that is over 100 times weaker (on average) and has a nulling fraction forty-times greater than that of the more regularly-emitting bright (B) mode. Previously, the pulsar has been undetected in the Q-mode, and was assumed to be nulling continuously. PSR B0823+26 shows a further decrease in average flux just before the transition into the B-mode, and perhaps truly turns off completely at these times. Furthermore, simultaneous observations taken with the LOFAR, Westerbork, Lovell, and Effelsberg telescopes between 110 MHz and 2.7 GHz demonstrate that the transition between the Q-mode and B-mode occurs within one single rotation of the neutron star, and that it is concurrent across the range of frequencies observed.
Transitional pulsars provide us with a unique laboratory to study the physics of accretion onto a magnetic neutron star. PSR J1023+0038 (J1023) is the best studied of this class. We investigate the X-ray spectral properties of J1023 in the framework of a working radio pulsar during the active state. We modelled the X-ray spectra in three modes (low, high, and flare) as well as in quiescence, to constrain the emission mechanism and source parameters. The emission model, formed by an assumed pulsar emission (thermal and magnetospheric) plus a shock component, can account for the data only adding a hot dense absorber covering ~30% of the emitting source in high mode. The covering fraction is similar in flaring mode, thus excluding total enshrouding, and decreases in the low mode despite large uncertainties. This provides support to the recently advanced idea of a mini-pulsar wind nebula (PWN), where X-ray and optical pulsations arise via synchrotron shock emission in a very close (~100 km, comparable to a light cylinder), PWN-like region that is associated with this hot absorber. In low mode, this region may expand, pulsations become undetectable, and the covering fraction decreases.
The emission from PSR J1107-5907 is erratic. Sometimes the radio pulse is undetectable, at other times the pulsed emission is weak, and for short durations the emission can be very bright. In order to improve our understanding of these state changes, we have identified archival data sets from the Parkes radio telescope in which the bright emission is present, and find that the emission never switches from the bright state to the weak state, but instead always transitions to the off state. Previous work had suggested the identification of the off state as an extreme manifestation of the weak state. However, the connection between the off and bright emission reported here suggests that the emission can be interpreted as undergoing only two emission states: a bursting state consisting of both bright pulses and nulls as well as the weak-emission state.