发表机构
Centre for Radio Astronomy Techniques and Technologies (RATT), Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University; South African Radio Astronomy Observatory; High Energy Physics, Cosmology & Astrophysics Theory (HEPCAT) Group, Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town; Department of Astronomy, University of Cape Town; Institute for Radioastronomy, National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF IRA); Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford; Breakthrough Listen, Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford（罗德岛大学物理与电子学院射电天文技术与理论中心; 南非射电天文观测台; 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; 开普敦大学天文学系; 国家天体物理研究所射电天文研究所; 牛津大学物理系天体物理学; 突破聆听计划牛津大学物理系天体物理学）
机构由 AI 辅助整理，请以论文原文为准。AI 中文总结
利用MeerKAT数据通过TRON流水线发现间歇脉冲星PSR J0052-7551，首次以间歇行为触发探测，验证了TRON对中等时标瞬变现象的探测能力。
AI 中文摘要
我们报告在MeerKAT对小麦哲伦星云（SMC）的存档L波段观测中发现了一颗间歇脉冲星PSR J0052$-$7551。该发现使用了图像平面瞬变检测流水线TRON，该流水线为每个时间样本生成残差图像，并采用启发式剪枝策略在生成的时序图像立方体中识别有希望的候选体。TRON流水线触发于与典型脉冲星间歇行为相关的约分钟级时间尺度变化。后续MeerKAT UHF波段波束形成器观测揭示了一颗自转周期为0.55秒、实测周期导数为6.1(6)$\ imes$10$^{-17}$秒·秒$^{-1}$的脉冲星。该源在投影上位于SMC外围，其色散量为29.24(2)秒差距·厘米$^{-3}$，与视线方向上预期的银河系贡献量级相当。我们使用高斯混合模型拟合间歇行为，得到间歇比例约为32%。我们发现间歇长度与指数分布一致，表明这是一个随机过程。此外，UHF可见度数据的功率谱揭示了一个无法解释的约5$-$7秒的准周期特征，该特征不能归因于源本身、射频干扰或标准仪器效应。继先前TRON方法基于闪烁或掩食行为在图像平面探测到脉冲星之后，这是首次由间歇行为触发的探测。这一发现证实了TRON对中等时间尺度持续时间的广泛天体物理现象的敏感性。
英文摘要
We report on the discovery of a nulling pulsar, PSR J0052$-$7551, in archival MeerKAT L-band observations of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC). The discovery was made using the image-plane transient detection pipeline, TRON, which creates a residual image for each time sample and uses a heuristic pruning strategy to identify promising candidates in the resulting temporal image cube. The TRON pipeline triggered on the approximately minute timescale variability associated with the nulling behaviour of a canonical pulsar. Follow-up MeerKAT UHF-band beamformer observations revealed a pulsar with a spin period of 0.55 s and a measured period derivative of 6.1(6)$\times$10$^{-17}$s$\cdot$s$^{-1}$. The source is seen in projection toward the periphery of the SMC, and has a dispersion measure value of 29.24(2) pc$\cdot$cm$^{-3}$, which is on the order of the expected Milky Way contribution along the line of sight. We use a Gaussian Mixture Model to fit the nulling behaviour which yielded a nulling fraction of $\sim 32$%. We find that the null lengths are consistent with an exponential distribution indicating a stochastic process. Additionally, power spectra of the UHF visibility data reveal an unexplained quasi-periodic feature at ~5$-$7 s that cannot be attributed to the source itself, RFI, or standard instrumental effects. Following on from previous image-plane detections of pulsars by the TRON approach, which relied on either scintillation or eclipsing behaviour, this is the first detection triggered by nulling. This discovery confirms TRON's sensitivity to a wide range of astrophysical phenomena of medium timescale duration.
Comments11 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS
