脉冲星搜索技术及FAST望远镜脉冲星搜索展望

分析现有的脉冲星搜索方法对于即将开展的FAST望远镜早期脉冲星搜索的可行性和必要性,尝试脉冲星搜索数据处理的软、硬件加速。回顾并总结了现有的脉冲星搜索方法和这些方法对应的发现,分析这些方法的特点。编写了基于PRESTO的并行数据处理程序。估计了使用显卡计算加速来完成单脉冲搜索的可行性和效率。编写的基于PRESTO的并行数据处理程序使得处理帕克斯望远镜多波束巡天的一个典型大小(100 MB)的文件的时间从约95 min缩短到短于10 min。使用显卡加速的单脉冲搜索实现了大约20倍的加速,数据处理时间短于获取观测数据的时间。对于使用望远镜早期观测数据进行脉冲星搜索而言,用于短轨道周期脉冲星搜索的相位调制搜索算法是没有必要的,用于搜索较长轨道周期的加速搜索算法也不十分必要,而用于长自转周期脉冲星搜索的快速折叠算法仅在需要搜索长自转周期的弱脉冲星时才需要使用。在数据处理过程中,软、硬件等方面可以加快数据处理的速度,可以使数据处理用时短于获取数据的时间。

中国天眼的科学新发现

中国天眼,500米口径球面射电望远镜,是我国自主设计建造的世界最大单口径射电望远镜,是我国射电天文学领域的观天利器。迄今,中国天眼已发现一些新的天体结构和天体现象,为理解脉冲星的辐射、快速射电暴的起源、银河系和河外星系的结构,以及恒星的形成做出了贡献。与此同时,中国天眼也在开展搜寻地外文明等项目,未来将继续放眼未知,如长周期的磁星等。

人工智能在脉冲星候选体筛选中的应用

脉冲星搜寻是对脉冲星、引力波,以及对快速射电暴(Fast Radio Burst,简称FRB)等暂现源进行研究的基础。搜寻不仅可以扩大脉冲星样本,还可以发现极端性质的致密星。这有助于研究致密天体状态方程、星际介质、脉冲星导航、引力波探测等课题。目前,射电望远镜的单次巡天就可以产生百万数量级的脉冲星候选体。面对这些海量数据,仅仅依赖人工识别筛选,已不能满足数据的时效需求,更不能实现数据的实时处理。机器学习、计算机视觉应用等人工智能技术自诞生以来,其理论和技术已日益发展成熟,并已成功运用到脉冲星候选体筛选等射电天文研究领域。首先将介绍现有脉冲星搜寻的人工智能方法,再统计和分析已有脉冲星候选体筛选方法的性能,最后对FAST脉冲星候选体筛选工作进行展望。

Three pulsars discovered by FAST in the globular cluster NGC 6517 with a pulsar candidate sifting code based on dispersion measure to signal-to-noise ratio plots

We report the discovery of three new pulsars in the globular cluster(GC)NGC 6517,namely NGC 6517 E,F and G,made with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST).The spin periods of NGC 6517 E,F and G are 7.60 ms,24.89 ms and 51.59 ms,respectively.Their dispersion measures are 183.29,183.713 and 185.3 pc cm^(-3),respectively,all slightly larger than those of the previously known pulsars in this cluster.The spin period derivatives are at the level of 1×10^(-18) s s^(-1),which suggests these are recycled pulsars.In addition to the discovery of these three new pulsars,we updated the timing solutions of the known isolated pulsars,NGC 6517 A,C and D.The solutions are consistent with those from Lynch et al.but with smaller timing residuals.From the timing solution,NGC6517 A,B(position from Lynch et al.),C,E and F are very close to each other on the sky and only a few arcseconds from the optical core of NGC 6517.With currently published and unpublished discoveries,nine pulsars have been discovered in NGC 651,ranking it 6 thfor GCs with the most known pulsars.The discoveries take advantage of the high sensitivity of FAST and a new algorithm used to check and filter possible candidate signals.

脉冲星数据比对分析和可视化系统设计与实现

脉冲星数据比对分析和可视化系统(PSRDB,URL:http://www.psrdb.net/),由FAST(Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope)早期科学数据中心团队为快速开展脉冲星候选体比对分析和数据管理研发.通过前端数据提交页面,接收和维护来自FAST及其他研究机构的候选体数据.目前,PSRDB已收录自1967年人类发现第1颗脉冲星以来所有公开文献发表的2811颗脉冲星样本,并采集了当前主要巡天项目尚未正式发表的源和候选体,如FAST多科学目标同时扫描巡天(CRAFTS)候选体数据.基于入库基础数据,利用位置、周期、色散等参数进行比对分析,辅助科研工作者在线检索匹配已知星表数据,最后将检索匹配、比对分析结果生成图表供进一步分析.目前,PSRDB已被应用于FAST脉冲星搜寻和候选体数据管理.未来,PSRDB可在新源认证、后随观测、观测计划制定和原始数据处理流程设计等方面提供数据和工具支撑.

A PRESTO-based parallel pulsar search pipeline used for FAST drift scan data

We developed a pulsar search pipeline based on PulsaR Exploration and Search TOolkit(PRESTO).This pipeline simply runs dedispersion,Fast Fourier Transform(FFT)and acceleration search in process-level parallel to shorten the processing time.With two parallel strategies,the pipeline can highly shorten the processing time in both normal searches and acceleration searches.This pipeline was first tested with Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survery(PMPS)data and discovered two new faint pulsars.Then,it was successfully applied in processing the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)drift scan data with tens of new pulsar discoveries up to now.The pipeline is only CPU-based and can be easily and quickly deployed in computing nodes for testing purposes or data processing.

A GPU based single-pulse search pipeline(GSP)with database and its application to the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey(CRAFTS)

We developed a GPU based single-pulse search pipeline(GSP)with a candidate-archiving database.Largely based upon the infrastructure of the open source PulsaR Exploration and Search Toolkit(PRESTO),GSP implements GPU acceleration of the de-dispersion and integrates a candidate-archiving database.We applied GSP to the data streams from the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey(CRAFTS),which resulted in quasi-real-time processing.The integrated candidate database facilitates synergistic usage of multiple machine-learning tools and thus improves efficient identification of radio pulsars such as rotating radio transients(RRATs)and fast radio bursts(FRBs).We first tested GSP on pilot CRAFTS observations with the FAST Ultra-Wide Band(UWB)receiver.GSP detected all pulsars known from the the Parkes multibeam pulsar survey in the corresponding sky area covered by the FAST-UWB.GSP also discovered 13 new pulsars.We measured the computational efficiency of GSP to be~120 times faster than the original PRESTO and~60 times faster than an MPI-parallelized version of PRESTO.

An Arecibo follow-up study of seven pulsars discovered by Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)

We present Arecibo 327 MHz confirmation and follow-up studies of seven new pulsars discovered by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST).These pulsars are discovered in a pilot program of the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey(CRAFTS)with the ultra-widebandwidth commissioning receiver.Five of them are normal pulsars and two are extreme nulling slow pulsars.PSR J2111+2132’s dispersion measure(DM:78.5 pc cm^(-3))is above the upper limits of the two Galactic free electron density models,NE2001 and YMW16,and PSR J2057+2133’s position is out of the Scutum-Crux Arm,making them uniquely useful for improving the Galactic free electron density model in their directions.We present a detailed single pulse analysis for the slow nulling pulsars.We show evidence that PSR J2323+1214’s main pulse component follows a non-Poisson distribution and marginal evidence for a sub-pulse-drift or recurrent period of 32.3±0.4 rotations from PSR J0539+0013.We discuss the implication of our finding to the pulsar radiation mechanism.

FAST漂移扫描观测:快速射电暴信号模拟与模拟样本

快速射电暴(fast radio burst,FRB)是一种发生在毫秒时标的射电爆发现象。观测发现,它们很可能来自银河系外,对研究致密天体并合、星际介质、宇宙大尺度结构等有着重要意义。中国新近建成的500 m口径球面射电望远镜(Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope,FAST)是世界上最大的单天线射电望远镜,其多波束漂移扫描观测有望在快速射电暴观测方面作出贡献。针对FAST的漂移扫描观测模式,开展了多种参数和分布下的快速射电暴模拟,构建了下述快速射电暴的样本:一个是对快速射电暴在射电观测参数空间进行模拟获得的样本;一个是根据快速射电暴本身距离(红移)与色散之间可能存在的关系,进行物理参数空间模拟获得的样本。每个样本均有50000个模拟的快速射电暴信号,它们不仅可用来检验应用于FAST巡天扫描观测的快速射电暴搜寻算法的探测效率,还可以用来研究FAST漂移扫描观测和各类快速射电暴搜寻算法的选择效应,从而有可能从实际快速射电暴探测结果反推快速射电暴的内禀物理性质和分布。获得的快速射电暴样本对重复快速射电暴观测和数据分析具有借鉴意义。

脉冲星候选样本分类方法综述

脉冲星搜索是射电天文学中的重要前沿领域。随着现代搜索设备性能的不断提升,可以接收到更弱的信号,如何从海量信号中准确地识别出脉冲星疑似信号成为一个挑战。介绍了国内外关于脉冲星候选样本分类方法的发展历史和发展状态,归纳总结了发展过程中各个阶段的处理方法:人工识别方法和机器学习方法;最后对未来的发展趋势进行了分析。

一种脉冲星候选体验证方法的实现

脉冲星候选体验证是判断是否找到新脉冲星的关键一步。传统的方式是通过人工与PSRCAT中已知脉冲星数据对比,效率很低。目前,FAST采用19波束接收机系统,脉冲星巡天年数据量预计将产生上亿脉冲星候选体,采用PSRCAT将无法满足FAST的巡天数据处理需求。介于数据库技术在组织和存储数据、高效地获取和处理数据方面优势,提出了一种基于数据库和web的匹配方法去实现脉冲星候选体的验证,并开发了相应的web接口。对Parkes多波束脉冲星巡天在FAST天区部分数据进行处理(约60G),获得了约3万个候选体文件,利用该方法,经过验证得到27颗已知脉冲星对应的247个脉冲星候选体,结果显示对计算中产生的对应周期的候选体均能成功匹配。

Spatial modulation search applied to the search and confirmation of highly scintillated pulsars at FAST with a pulsar discovered in M3

We present a pulsar candidate identification and confirmation procedure based on a position-switch mode during the pulsar search observations.This method enables the simultaneous search and confirmation of a pulsar in a single observation,by utilizing the different spatial features of a pulsar signal and radio frequency interference(RFI).Based on this method,we performed test pulsar search observations in globular clusters M3,M15 and M92.We discovered and confirmed a new pulsar,M3 F,and detected the known pulsars M3 B,M15 A to G(except C) and M92 A.

一种基于DSPSR和GPU的脉冲星相干消色散基带数据处理技术

相比于非相干消色散,相干消色散具有色散消除更彻底、可保留原始数据相位、时间分辨率信息等优势,但同时具有运算量大、数据处理耗时长等问题。为实现脉冲星基带数据相干消色散处理,对数据处理流程进行加速,开发一种以DSPSR(digital signal processing software for pulsar)和GPU(graphics processing unit)为数据处理核心的脉冲星数据处理技术。利用高速共享内存实现对环形缓存区两路极化基带数据的读取,结合图形处理器高性能计算技术,使用DSPSR对基带数据进行相干消色散处理。数据处理结果表明,相比于多线程非相干消色散系统,此数据处理技术在数据处理速度方面具有更好的优越性,并可获得更精细的脉冲轮廓。

分子云中的湍流

湍流是分子云中的重要现象,在恒星形成中发挥了关键作用.湍流研究包括能量注入、能量耗散和间歇性等.湍流能量注入可能来源于星系盘的剪切、引力塌缩以及恒星演化过程的反馈.能量注入机制可能不是唯一的.本文虽尚未明确测量到湍流能量耗散尺度,但可以通过观测确定湍流耗散速率.实测中已经观察到了分子云中湍流的间歇性.未来分子云中的湍流研究还需要大天区、高空间分辨率的谱线成图数据(例如,110m望远镜C_2H谱线、^(13)CO谱线成图)以更好地研究能量注入尺度、注入率、能量耗散率、间歇性以及各向异性等课题.