No Arabic abstract
We have been conducting the GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky (GHRSS) survey for the last four years and have discovered 18 pulsars to date. The GHRSS survey is an off-Galactic-plane survey at 322 MHz in a region of the sky (declination range -40 degrees to -54 degrees) complementary to other ongoing low-frequency surveys. In this paper we report the discovery of three pulsars, PSRs J1239-48, J1516-43 and J1726-52. We also present timing solutions for three pulsars previously discovered with the GHRSS survey: PSR J2144-5237, a millisecond pulsar with a period P=5 ms in a 10 day orbit around a < 0.18 Msun companion; PSR J1516-43, a mildly recycled P=36 ms pulsar in a 228 day orbit with a companion of mass ~0.4 Msun; and the P=320 ms PSR J0514-4408 which we show is a source of pulsed $gamma$-ray emission. We also report radio polarimetric observations of three of the GHRSS discoveries, PSRs J0418-4154, J0514-4408 and J2144-5237.
We are conducting a survey for pulsars and transients using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky (GHRSS) survey is an off-Galactic-plane (|b|>5) survey in the declination range -40 deg to -54 deg at 322 MHz. With the high time (up to 30.72 micro-sec) and frequency (up to 0.016275 MHz) resolution observing modes, the 5-sigma detection limit is 0.5 mJy for a 2 ms pulsar with 10% duty cycle at 322 MHz. Total GHRSS sky coverage of 2866 square-deg, will result from 1953 pointing, each covering 1.8 square-deg. The 10-sigma detection limit for a 5 milli-sec transient burst is 1.6 Jy for the GHRSS survey. In addition, the GHRSS survey can reveal transient events like rotating radio transients or fast radio bursts. With 35% of the survey completed (i.e. 1000 square-deg), we report the discovery of 10 pulsars, one of which is a millisecond pulsar (MSP), one of the highest pulsar per square degree discovery rates for any off-Galactic plane survey. We re-detected 23 known in-beam pulsars. Utilising the imaging capability of the GMRT we also localised 4 of the GHRSS pulsars (including the MSP) in the gated image plane within +/- 10 arc-second. We demonstrated rapid convergence in pulsar timing with a more precise position than is possible with single dish discoveries. We also exhibited that we can localise the brightest transient sources with simultaneously obtained lower time resolution imaging data, demonstrating a technique that may have application in the SKA.
We report the discovery of four Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) in the ongoing SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts (SUPERB) at the Parkes Radio Telescope: FRBs 150610, 151206, 151230 and 160102. Our real-time discoveries have enabled us to conduct extensive, rapid multi-messenger follow-up at 12 major facilities sensitive to radio, optical, X-ray, gamma-ray photons and neutrinos on time scales ranging from an hour to a few months post-burst. No counterparts to the FRBs were found and we provide upper limits on afterglow luminosities. None of the FRBs were seen to repeat. Formal fits to all FRBs show hints of scattering while their intrinsic widths are unresolved in time. FRB 151206 is at low Galactic latitude, FRB 151230 shows a sharp spectral cutoff, and FRB 160102 has the highest dispersion measure (DM = $2596.1pm0.3$ pc cm$^{-3}$) detected to date. Three of the FRBs have high dispersion measures (DM >$1500$ pc cm$^{-3}$), favouring a scenario where the DM is dominated by contributions from the Intergalactic Medium. The slope of the Parkes FRB source counts distribution with fluences $>2$ Jyms is $alpha=-2.2^{+0.6}_{-1.2}$ and still consistent with a Euclidean distribution ($alpha=-3/2$). We also find that the all-sky rate is $1.7^{+1.5}_{-0.9}times10^3$FRBs/($4pi$ sr)/day above $sim2$ Jyms and there is currently no strong evidence for a latitude-dependent FRB sky-rate.
We present the results of processing an additional 44% of the High Time Resolution Universe South Low Latitude (HTRU-S LowLat) pulsar survey, the most sensitive blind pulsar survey of the southern Galactic plane to date. Our partially-coherent segmented acceleration search pipeline is designed to enable the discovery of pulsars in short, highly-accelerated orbits, while our 72-min integration lengths will allow us to discover pulsars at the lower end of the pulsar luminosity distribution. We report the discovery of 40 pulsars, including three millisecond pulsar-white dwarf binary systems (PSRs J1537-5312, J1547-5709 and J1618-4624), a black-widow binary system (PSR J1745-23) and a candidate black-widow binary system (PSR J1727-2951), a glitching pulsar (PSR J1706-4434), an eclipsing binary pulsar with a 1.5-yr orbital period (PSR J1653-45), and a pair of long spin-period binary pulsars which display either nulling or intermittent behaviour (PSRs J1812-15 and J1831-04). We show that the total population of 100 pulsars discovered in the HTRU-S LowLat survey to date represents both an older and lower-luminosity population, and indicates that we have yet to reach the bottom of the luminosity distribution function. We present evaluations of the performance of our search technique and of the overall yield of the survey, considering the 94% of the survey which we have processed to date. We show that our pulsar yield falls below earlier predictions by approximately 25% (especially in the case of millisecond pulsars), and discuss explanations for this discrepancy as well as future adaptations in RFI mitigation and searching techniques which may address these shortfalls.
We have embarked on a survey for pulsars and fast transients using the 13-beam Multibeam receiver on the Parkes radio telescope. Installation of a digital backend allows us to record 400 MHz of bandwidth for each beam, split into 1024 channels and sampled every 64 us. Limits of the receiver package restrict us to a 340 MHz observing band centred at 1352 MHz. The factor of eight improvement in frequency resolution over previous multibeam surveys allows us to probe deeper into the Galactic plane for short duration signals such as the pulses from millisecond pulsars. We plan to survey the entire southern sky in 42641 pointings, split into low, mid and high Galactic latitude regions, with integration times of 4200, 540 and 270 s respectively. Simulations suggest that we will discover 400 pulsars, of which 75 will be millisecond pulsars. With ~30% of the mid-latitude survey complete, we have re-detected 223 previously known pulsars and discovered 27 pulsars, 5 of which are millisecond pulsars. The newly discovered millisecond pulsars tend to have larger dispersion measures than those discovered in previous surveys, as expected from the improved time and frequency resolution of our instrument.
We report on the discovery of four millisecond pulsars (MSPs) in the High Time Resolution Universe (HTRU) pulsar survey being conducted at the Parkes 64-m radio telescope. All four MSPs are in binary systems and are likely to have white dwarf companions. In addition, we present updated timing solutions for 12 previously published HTRU MSPs, revealing new observational parameters such as five proper motion measurements and significant temporal dispersion measure variations in PSR J1017-7156. We discuss the case of PSR J1801-3210, which shows no significant period derivative after four years of timing data. Our best-fit solution shows a period derivative of the order of $10^{-23}$, an extremely small number compared to that of a typical MSP. However, it is likely that the pulsar lies beyond the Galactic Centre, and an unremarkable intrinsic period derivative is reduced to close to zero by the Galactic potential acceleration. Furthermore, we highlight the potential to employ PSR J1801-3210 in the strong equivalence principle test due to its wide and circular orbit. In a broader comparison with the known MSP population, we suggest a correlation between higher mass functions and the presence of eclipses in `very low-mass binary pulsars, implying that eclipses are observed in systems with high orbital inclinations. We also suggest that the distribution of the total mass of binary systems is inversely-related to the Galactic height distribution. Finally, we report on the first detection of PSRs J1543-5149 and J1811-2404 as gamma-ray pulsars.