About 200 radio pulsars have been observed to exhibit nulling episodes - short and long. We find that the nulling fraction of a pulsar does not have any obvious correlation with any of the intrinsic pulsar parameters. It also appears that the phenomenon of nulling may be preferentially experienced by pulsars with emission coming predominantly from the polar cap region, and also having extremely curved magnetic fields.
Approximately 8% of the $\sim$2800 known pulsars exhibit "nulling," a temporary broadband cessation of normal pulsar emission. Nulling behaviour can be coarsely quantified by the nulling fraction, which describes the percentage of time a given pulsar will be found in a null state. In this paper, we perform the most thorough statistical analysis thus far of the properties of 141 known nulling pulsars. We find weak, non-linear correlations between nulling fraction and pulse width, as well as nulling fraction and spin period which could be attributed to selection effects. We also further investig…
A detailed analysis of nulling was conducted for the pulsars studied in the Meterwavelength Single-pulse Polarimetric Emission Survey. We characterized nulling in 36 pulsars including 17 pulsars where the phenomena were reported for the first time. The most dominant nulls lasted for short durations, less than five periods. The longer duration nulls extending to hundreds of periods were also seen in some cases. A careful analysis showed the presence of periodicities in the transition from the null to the burst states in 11 pulsars. In our earlier work fluctuation spectrum analysis showed multip…
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the absence of pulses in pulsar, a phenomena also know as pulsar nulling. The motivation for the work done in thesis is listed in Chapter 2. A detailed discussion on the previous work carried out to investigate pulsar nulling phenomena is also included in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 discusses in details all the observations carried out for the thesis. In Chapter 4, details regarding the nulling behaviour of various pulsars are listed. Chapter 4 highlights the fact that nulling is unpredictable. Chapter 5 presents a comparison between two pulsars with high NFs.…
FAST Pulsar Database III. Snapshots of nulling, mode-changing and subpulse modulation of 374 pulsars
National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）；School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学天文与空间科学学院）；State Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Technology（射电天文学与技术国家重点实验室）
We report a detailed observational study of the single pulses from the pulsar J1822$-$2256. The pulsar shows the presence of subpulse drifting, nulling as well as multiple emission modes. During these observations the pulsar existed primarily in two modes; mode A with prominent drift bands and mode B which was more disorderly without any clear subpulse drifting. A third mode C was also seen for a short duration with a different drifting periodicity compared to mode A. The nulls were present throughout the observations but were more frequent during the disorderly B mode. The nulling also exhibi…
Most of pulsar nulling observations were conducted at frequencies lower than 1400~MHz. We aim to understand the nulling behaviors of pulsars at relatively high frequency, and to check if nulling is caused by a global change of pulsar magnetosphere. 20 bright pulsars are observed at 2250~MHz with unprecedented lengths of time by using Jiamusi 66m telescope. Nulling fractions of these pulsars are estimated, and the null and emission states of pulses are identified. Nulling degrees and scales of the emission-null pairs are calculated to describe the distributions of emission and null lengths. Thr…
Single pulse behaviour of radio pulsars is usually interpreted in terms of the ExB drift of a radio beam. It is shown that antisymmetric arrangement of the radio-bright zones can produce several types of observed single pulse phenomena: the half-cycle jump in subpulse modulation phase, left-right-middle subpulse sequence and switching between the core-dominated and cone-dominated pulsation modes. The geometry can also produce nulling, both sporadic and intermodal. The model implies that the radio-quiet intervals that separate the main pulse and interpulse in PSR B0826-34 correspond to azimutha…
Pulsar nulling is a phenomenon of sudden cessation of pulse emission for a number of periods. The nulling fraction was often used to characterize the phenomenon. We propose a new method to analyse pulsar nulling phenomenon, by involving two key parameters, the nulling degree, $χ$, which is defined as the angle in a rectangular coordinates for the numbers of nulling periods and bursting periods, and the nulling scale, $ N $, which is defined as the effective length of the consecutive nulling periods and bursting periods. The nulling degree $χ$ can be calculated by $\tan χ= N_{\rm nulling} / N_{…
Several pulsars show sudden cessation of pulsed emission, which is known as pulsar nulling. In this paper, the nulling behaviour of 15 pulsars is presented. The nulling fractions of these pulsars, along with the degree of reduction in the pulse energy during the null phase, are reported for these pulsars. A quasi-periodic null-burst pattern is reported for PSR J1738-2330. The distributions of lengths of the null and the burst phases as well as the typical nulling time scales are estimated for eight strong pulsars. The nulling pattern of four pulsars with similar nulling fraction are found to b…
We report detailed investigation of nulling and drifting behavior of two pulsars PSRs J1741-0840 and J1840-0840 observed from the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope at 625 MHz. PSR J1741-840 was found to show nulling fraction (NF) of around 30(5)% while PSR J1840-0840 was shown to have NF of around 50(6)%. We measured drifting behavior from different profile components in PSR J1840-0840 for the first time with the leading component showing drifting with 13.5(0.7) periods while the weak trailing component showed drifting of around 18(1) periods. Large nulling do hamper accuracy of these quantities…
We propose that in some pulsars the magnetosphere has different states with different geometries or/and different distributions of currents, it occasionally switches between them. These states have different spindown rates and emission beams, in some of the states no radioemission is produced at all. Switching into a different state manifests as a mode change when we see different parts of the emission beam or the beams in different states have significantly different geometries, it manifests as nulling when we either miss the new beam or no radioemission is generated in the new state. We show…
Institute for Gravitational Wave Astronomy and School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Birmingham（伯明翰大学引力波天文研究所与物理天文学学院）；Quantum Formatics（量子计算公司）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University（西弗吉尼亚大学物理与天文学系）；Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University（西弗吉尼亚大学引力波与宇宙学中心）；Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Bhopal（印度科学教育研究学院博帕尔分校物理系）
The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT XIX: Single-pulse data analysis, nulling and pulse energy distributions
University of Manchester（曼彻斯特大学）；University of Southampton（南安普顿大学）；University of Cambridge（剑桥大学）；University of Oxford（牛津大学）；ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy（荷兰射电天文研究所）；CSIRO（澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织）
We report the independent discovery of PSR J0027-1956 with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) in the ongoing Southern-sky MWA Rapid Two-meter (SMART) pulsar survey. J0027-1956 has a period of ~1.306 s, a dispersion measure (DM) of ~20.869 pc cm^-3 , and a nulling fraction of ~77%. This pulsar highlights the advantages of the survey's long dwell times (~80 min), which, when fully searched, will be sensitive to the expected population of similarly bright, intermittent pulsars with long nulls. A single-pulse analysis in the MWA's 140-170 MHz band also reveals a complex sub-pulse drifting behavio…
We have carried out a detailed study of single pulse emission from the pulsar B2000+40 (J2002+4050), observed at 1.6 GHz frequencies using the Effelsberg radio telescope. The pulsar has three components which are not well separated, with the central component resembling core emission. We have investigated modulations in single pulse behaviour using the fluctuation spectral analysis which showed presence of two prominent periodicities, around 2.5$P$ and 40$P$, respectively. The shorter periodicity was associated with the phenomenon of subpulse drifting and was seen to be absent in central core …
The Pulsar backend of the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) has monitored hundreds of known pulsars in the northern sky since Fall 2018, providing a rich data set for the study of temporal variations in pulsar emission. Using a matched filtering technique, we report, for the first time, nulling behaviour in five pulsars as well as mode switching in nine pulsars. Only one of the pulsars is observed to show both nulling and moding signals. These new nulling and mode switching pulsars appear to come from a population with relatively long spin periods, in agreement with previo…
Single-Pulse Study of the Pseudo-nulling Pulsar PSR J1820-0509 Based on FAST Observations
Guizhou Normal University（贵州师范大学）；Huazhong University of Science and Technology（华中科技大学）；National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）；Tsinghua University（清华大学）；Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学）；Qilu Normal University（齐鲁工业大学）
We present an analysis of approximately 200 hours of observations of the pulsars J1634$-$5107, J1717$-$4054 and J1853$+$0505, taken over the course of 14.7 yr. We show that all of these objects exhibit long term nulls and radio-emitting phases (i.e. minutes to many hours), as well as considerable nulling fractions (NFs) in the range $\sim67\,\% - 90\,\%$. PSR J1717$-$4054 is also found to exhibit short timescale nulls ($1 - 40~P$) and burst phases ($\lesssim 200~P$) during its radio-emitting phases. This behaviour acts to modulate the NF, and therefore the detection rate of the source, over ti…
In this study, we report on a detailed single pulse polarimetric analysis of the radio emission from the pulsar J2321+6024 (B2319+60) observed with the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope, over wide frequencies ranging between 300 to 500 MHz and widely separated observing sessions. The pulsar profile shows the presence of four distinct conal components and belongs to a small group of pulsars classified as a conal quadrupole profile type. The single pulse sequence reveals the presence of three distinct emission modes, A, B, and ABN showing subpulse drifting. Besides, there were sequences when the p…
We report on radiation properties of extreme nulling pulsar J1502-5653, by analyzing the data acquired from the Parkes 64-m telescope at 1374 MHz. The radio emission from this pulsar exhibits sequences of several tens to several hundreds consecutive burst pulses, separated by null pulses, and the appearance of the emission seems quasi-periodic. The null fraction from the data is estimated to be 93.6%. No emission is detected in the integrated profile of all null pulses. Systematic modulations of pulse intensity and phase are found at the beginning of burst-pulse sequences just after null. The …
Radio pulsars exhibit an enormous diversity of single pulse behaviour that involves sudden changes in pulsation mode and nulling occurring on timescales of tens or hundreds of spin periods. The pulsations appear both chaotic and quasi-regular, which has hampered their interpretation for decades. Here I show that the pseudo-chaotic complexity of single pulses is caused by the viewing of a relatively simple radio beam that has a sector structure traceable to the magnetospheric charge distribution. The slow ExB drift of the sector beam, when sampled by the line of sight, produces the classical dr…
We report a detailed analysis of the emission behaviour of the five component, core-double cone, pulsar J2006$-$0807 (B2003$-$08). The single pulses revealed the presence of the three major phenomena of subpulse drifting, nulling and mode changing. The pulsar switched between four different emission modes, two of which showed systematic drifting with prominent drift bands, and were classified as modes A and B respectively. The drifting was seen primarily in the conal components and exhibited the rare phenomenon of bi-drifting, where the drift direction in the second component was opposite to t…
A study of periodic nulling in PSR B0751+32 with FAST
State Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Technology, Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, CAS（中国科学院新疆天文台）；Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Radio Astrophysics（新疆射电天体物理重点实验室）
We investigate the radio emission behaviour of PSR B0823+26, a pulsar which is known to undergo pulse nulling, using an 153-d intensive sequence of observations. The pulsar is found to exhibit both short (~min) and unusually long-term (~hours or more) nulls, which not only suggest that the source possesses a distribution of nulling timescales, but that it may also provide a link between conventional nulling pulsars and longer-term intermittent pulsars. Despite seeing evidence for periodicities in the pulsar radio emission, we are uncertain whether they are intrinsic to the source, due to the i…
We report on the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) monitoring campaign of the 468 Hz accreting millisecond X-ray pulsar IGR J17379-3747. From a detailed spectral and timing analysis of the coherent pulsations we find that they show a strong energy dependence, with soft thermal emission lagging about 640 microseconds behind the hard, Comptonized emission. Additionally, we observe uncommonly large pulse fractions, with measured amplitudes in excess of 20% sinusoidal fractional amplitude across the NICER passband and fluctuations of up to ~70%. Based on a phase-resolved spectral …
PSR J1717-4054 is one of the small class of pulsars which null on intermediate (~hour) timescales. Such pulsars represent an important link between classical nullers, whose emission vanishes for a few rotations, and the intermittent pulsars which null for months and years. Using the Parkes radio telescope and the Australia Telescope Compact Array, we have studied the emission from PSR J1717-4054 over intervals from single pulses to years. We have identified and characterised nulling at three discrete timescales: the pulsar emits during "active states" separated by nulls lasting many thousands …
Mining the time axis with TRON - III. Discovery of a nulling pulsar towards the SMC with MeerKAT
Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (RATT), Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University（罗德岛大学物理与电子学院射电天文技术与理论中心）；South African Radio Astronomy Observatory（南非射电天文观测台）；High Energy Physics, Cosmology & Astrophysics Theory (HEPCAT) Group, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town（开普敦大学数学与应用数学系高能物理、宇宙学与天体物理学理论组）；Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town（开普敦大学天文学系）；Institute for Radioastronomy, National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF IRA)（国家天体物理研究所射电天文研究所）；Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford（牛津大学物理系天体物理学）；Breakthrough Listen, Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford（突破聆听计划牛津大学物理系天体物理学）
Single pulse observations, characterizing in detail, the nulling behaviour of PSR B1706$-$16 are being reported for the first time in this paper. Our regular long duration monitoring of this pulsar reveals long nulls of 2 to 5 hours with an overall nulling fraction of 31$\pm$2\%. The pulsar shows two distinct phases of emission. It is usually in an active phase, characterized by pulsations interspersed with shorter nulls, with a nulling fraction of about 15 \%, but it also rarely switches to an inactive phase, consisting of long nulls. The nulls in this pulsar are concurrent between 326.5 and …
Emission spectrum is calculated for a weak axisymmetric pulsar. Also calculated are the observed spectrum, efficiency, and the observed efficiency. The underlying flow of electrons and positrons turns out to be curiously intricate.
The curious Galactic features near G357.2$-$0.2 were observed with the MeerKAT radio interferometer array in the UHF and L bands (0.56--1.68 GHz). There are two possibly related features: a newly identified faint heart-shaped partial shell (the "Heart"), and a series of previously known but now much better imaged narrow, curved features (the "Worm") interior to the heart. Polarized emission suggests that much of the emission is nonthermal and is embedded in a dense plasma. The filaments of the worm appear to be magnetic structures powered by embedded knots that are sites of particle accelerati…
We performed simultaneous observations at 326.5 MHz with the Ooty Radio Telescope and at 326, 610 and 1308 MHz with the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope for a sample of 12 pulsars, where frequency dependent single pulse behaviour was reported. The single pulse sequences were analysed with fluctuation analysis, sensitive to both the average fluctuation properties (using longitude resolved fluctuation spectrum and two-dimensional fluctuation spectrum) as well as temporal changes in these (using sliding two-dimensional fluctuation spectrum ) to establish concurrent changes in subpulse drifting ove…
We report on a detailed analysis of the radio emission during the different modes of the pulsar J0826+2637 (B0823+26), observed using the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope at 306-339 MHz observing frequencies. The pulsar profile has a postcursor and interpulse emission in addition to the main pulse. The single pulses showed the presence of nulling, periodic fluctuation in the emission as well as two prominent modes. In addition the pulsar also showed the presence of a null state where no emission was seen for roughly an hour which was immediately followed by a short duration ($\sim$5 minutes) br…
Periodic modulations are seen in normal period pulsars ($P >$ 0.1 sec) over timescales ranging from a few seconds to several minutes. Such modulations have usually been associated with the phenomenon of subpulse drifting. A number of recent studies have shown subpulse drifting to exhibit very specific physical characteristics : i) drifting is seen only in conal components of the pulse profile and is absent in central core emission; ii) drifting pulsars are distributed over a narrow range of spin-down energy loss ($\dot{E}$), where pulsars with $\dot{E} < 2\times$10$^{32}$ erg s$^{-1}$ show thi…
RRAT J1541+4703: A Rotating Radio Transient Exhibiting Normal Pulsar States
Guizhou Normal University（贵州师范大学）；Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Data Processing, Guizhou Normal University（贵州师范大学贵州省射电天文与数据处理重点实验室）；Guizhou University（贵州大学）；School of Physics and Electronic Science, Guizhou Normal University（贵州师范大学物理与电子科学学院）；Guizhou Radio Astronomical Observatory（贵州射电天文观测台）；National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）
The analysis of radio emission of three new pulsars discovered at the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory is presented. The detailed observations were carried out at a frequency of 111 MHz using the Large Phased Array (LPA) and the standard digital receiver with a total bandwidth is 2.245 MHz and time resolution is 2.46 or 5.12 ms. All pulsars exhibit features of their radiation, the subpulse drift is observed in J0220+3622, the flare activity is exhibited in J0303+2248 and the nulling phenomenon has been detected in J0810+3725.
Several conjectures have been put forward to explain the RRATs, the newest subclass of neutron stars, and their connections to other radio pulsars. This work discusses these conjectures in the context of the characteristic properties of the RRAT population. Contrary to expectations, it is seen that - a) the RRAT population is statistically un-correlated with the nulling pulsars, and b) the RRAT phenomenon is unlikely to be related to old age or death-line proximity. It is perhaps more likely that the special emission property of RRATs is a signature of them being later evolutionary phases of o…
Discovery of Hidden Extragalactic Pulsars in the Parkes Archival Data
Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Leibniz Universität Hannover（汉诺威莱布尼茨大学）；Center for Gravitation, Cosmology, and Astrophysics, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee（威斯康星大学密尔沃基分校物理与天文学系引力、宇宙学和天体物理学中心）；Centre for Astrophysics and Supercomputing, Swinburne University of Technology（斯威本科技大学天体物理学与超级计算中心）；Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery (OzGrav)（澳大利亚研究理事会引力波发现卓越中心（OzGrav））；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Franklin and Marshall College（富兰克林和马歇尔学院物理与天文学系）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University（西弗吉尼亚大学物理与天文学系）；Center for Gravitational Waves and Cosmology, West Virginia University（西弗吉尼亚大学引力波与宇宙学中心）；School of Engineering, Murray State University（默里州立大学工程学院）
Simultaneous observations at four different frequencies viz. 313, 607, 1380 and 4850 MHz, for three pulsars, PSRs B0031-07, B0809+74 and B2319+60, are reported in this paper. Identified null and burst pulses are highly concurrent across more than decade of frequency. Small fraction of non-concurrent pulses (less than or equal to 3%) are observed, most of which occur at the transition instances. We report, with very high significance for the first time, full broadband nature of the nulling phenomenon in these three pulsars. These results suggest that nulling invokes changes on the global magnet…
A Pilot Study of Mildly Recycled Pulsars: A Case Study of PSR J2338+4818
College of Physics, Guizhou University（贵州大学物理学院）；Institute for Frontiers in Astronomy and Astrophysics, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学天文与前沿科学研究院）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理与天文学院）；Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院上海天文台）；School of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学天文与空间科学学院）；International Centre of Supernovae, Yunnan Key Laboratory（云南省超新星国际研究中心）；Guizhou Radio Astronomical Observatory, Guizhou University（贵州大学贵州射电天文台）；National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院国家天文台）；College of Astronomy and Space Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院大学天文与空间科学学院）
The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts ran from 2014 April to 2019 August, covering a large fraction of the southern hemisphere at mid- to high-galactic latitudes, and consisting of 9-minute pointings taken with the 20-cm multibeam receiver on the Parkes Radio Telescope. Data up to 2017 September 21 have been searched using standard Fourier techniques, single-pulse searches, and Fast Folding Algorithm searches. We present 19 new discoveries, bringing the total to 27 discoveries in the programme, and we report the results of follow-up timing observations at Parkes for 26 of these…
We report on the variation in the single-pulse emission from PSR J1900+4221 (CRAFTS 19C10) observed at frequency centered at 1.25 GHz using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. The integrated pulse profile shows two distinct components, referred to here as the leading and trailing components, with the latter component also containing a third weak component. The single-pulse sequence reveals different emissions demonstrating as nulling, regular, and bright pulses, each with a particular abundance and duration distribution. There also exists pulses that follow a log-normal …
We present radio pulsar emission beam analyses and models with the primary intent of examining pulsar beam geometry and physics over the broadest band of radio frequencies reasonably obtainable. We consider a set of well-studied pulsars that lie within the Arecibo sky. These pulsars stand out for the broad frequency range over which emission is detectable, and have been extensively observed at frequencies up to 4.5 GHz and down to below 100 MHz. We utilize published profiles to quantify a more complete picture of the frequency evolution of these pulsars using the core/double-cone emission beam…
We present detailed spectral and timing studies using a NuSTAR observation of GX 1+4 in October 2015 during an intermediate intensity state. The measured spin period of 176.778 s is found to be one of the highest values since its discovery. In contrast to a broad sinusoidal-like pulse profile, a peculiar sharp peak is observed in profiles below ~25 keV. The profiles at higher energies are found to be significantly phase-shifted compared to the soft X-ray profiles. Broadband energy spectra of GX 1+4, obtained from NuSTAR and Swift observations, are described with various continuum models. Among…
