A Search for Radio Pulsars in Supernova Remnants Using FAST with One Pulsar Discovered

We report the results of a search for radio pulsars in five supernova remnants(SNRs)with the FAST telescope.The observations were made using the 19-beam receiver in“snapshot”mode.The integration time for each pointing was 10 min.We discovered a new pulsar,PSR J1845–0306,which has a spin period of 983.6 ms and a dispersion measure of 444.6±2.0 cm^(−3)·pc,in observations of SNR G29.6+0.1.To judge the association between the pulsar and the SNR,further verification is needed.We also re-detected some known pulsars in the data from SNRs G29.6+0.1 and G29.7–0.3.No pulsars were detected in the observations of the other three SNRs.

Research on Pulsar Time Steered Atomic Time Algorithm Based on DPLL

In today’s society,there is a wide demand for high-precision and high-stability time service in the fields of electric power,communication,transportation and finance.At present,the time standard in various countries is mainly based on atomic clocks,but the frequency drift of atomic clocks will affect the long-term stability performance.Compared with atomic clocks,millisecond pulsars have better long-term stability and can complement with the excellent short-term stability of atomic clocks.In order to improve the long-term stability of the atomic timescale,and then improve the timing accuracy,this paper proposes an algorithm for steering the atomic clock ensemble(ACE)by ensemble pulsar time(EPT)based on digital phase locked loop(DPLL).First,the ACE and EPT are generated by the ALGOS algorithm,then the ACE is steered by EPT based on DPLL to calibrate the long-term frequency drift of the atomic clock,so that the generated steered atomic time follows both the short-term stability characteristics of ACE and the long-term stability characteristics of EPT,and finally,the steered atomic time is used to calibrate the local cesium clock.The experimental results show that the long-term stability of atomic time after steering is improved by 2 orders of magnitude compared with that before steering,and the daily drift of a local cesium clock after calibration is less than 9.47 ns in 3 yr,3 orders of magnitude higher than that before calibration on accuracy.

Fast Two-dimensional Positioning Method of Crab Pulsar Based on Multiple Optimization Algorithms

In the two-dimensional positioning method of pulsars, the grid method is used to provide non-sensitive direction and positional estimates. However, the grid method has a high computational load and low accuracy due to the interval of the grid. To improve estimation accuracy and reduce the computational load, we propose a fast twodimensional positioning method for the crab pulsar based on multiple optimization algorithms(FTPCO). The FTPCO uses the Levenberg–Marquardt(LM) algorithm, three-point orientation(TPO) method, particle swarm optimization(PSO) and Newton–Raphson-based optimizer(NRBO) to substitute the grid method. First, to avoid the influence of the non-sensitive direction on positioning, we take an orbital error and the distortion of the pulsar profile as optimization objectives and combine the grid method with the LM algorithm or PSO to search for the non-sensitive direction. Then, on the sensitive plane perpendicular to the non-sensitive direction, the TPO method is proposed to fast search the sensitive direction and sub-sensitive direction. Finally, the NRBO is employed on the sensitive and sub-sensitive directions to achieve two-dimensional positioning of the Crab pulsar. The simulation results show that the computational load of the FTPCO is reduced by 89.4% and the positioning accuracy of the FTPCO is improved by approximately 38% compared with the grid method. The FTPCO has the advantage of high real-time accuracy and does not fall into the local optimum.

UWLPIPE:Ultra-wide Bandwidth Low-frequency Pulsar Data Processing Pipeline

For real-time processing of ultra-wide bandwidth low-frequency pulsar baseband data,we designed and implemented an ultra-wide bandwidth low-frequency pulsar data processing pipeline(UWLPIPE)based on the shared ringbuffer and GPU parallel technology.UWLPIPE runs on the GPU cluster and can simultaneously receive multiple 128 MHz dual-polarization VDIF data packets preprocessed by the front-end FPGA.After aligning the dual-polarization data,multiple 128M subband data are packaged into PSRDADA baseband data or multi-channel coherent dispersion filterbank data,and multiple subband filterbank data can be spliced into wideband data after time alignment.We used the Nanshan 26 m radio telescope with the L-band receiver at964~1732 MHz to observe multiple pulsars.Finally,we processed the data using DSPSR software,and the results showed that each subband could correctly fold out the pulse profile,and the wideband pulse profile accumulated by multiple subbands could be correctly aligned.

Dealing with the Data Imbalance Problem in Pulsar Candidate Sifting Based on Feature Selection

Pulsar detection has become an active research topic in radio astronomy recently.One of the essential procedures for pulsar detection is pulsar candidate sifting(PCS),a procedure for identifying potential pulsar signals in a survey.However,pulsar candidates are always class-imbalanced,as most candidates are non-pulsars such as RFI and only a tiny part of them are from real pulsars.Class imbalance can greatly affect the performance of machine learning(ML)models,resulting in a heavy cost as some real pulsars are misjudged.To deal with the problem,techniques of choosing relevant features to discriminate pulsars from non-pulsars are focused on,which is known as feature selection.Feature selection is a process of selecting a subset of the most relevant features from a feature pool.The distinguishing features between pulsars and non-pulsars can significantly improve the performance of the classifier even if the data are highly imbalanced.In this work,an algorithm for feature selection called the K-fold Relief-Greedy(KFRG)algorithm is designed.KFRG is a two-stage algorithm.In the first stage,it filters out some irrelevant features according to their K-fold Relief scores,while in the second stage,it removes the redundant features and selects the most relevant features by a forward greedy search strategy.Experiments on the data set of the High Time Resolution Universe survey verified that ML models based on KFRG are capable of PCS,correctly separating pulsars from non-pulsars even if the candidates are highly class-imbalanced.

Characteristics of Emission Non-nulling Pulsars Through Simulation

We investigate the population and several properties of radio pulsars whose emission does not null(non-nulling)through simulation of a large pulsar sample.Emission from a pulsar is identified as non-nulling if(i)the emission does not cease across the whole pulse profile,and(ii)the emission is detectable.For(i),we adopt a model for switching in the plasma charge density,and emission persists if the charge density is non-zero.For(ii),we assume that detectable emission originates from source points where it is emitted tangentially to the magnetic field-line and parallel to the line-of-sight.We find that pulsars exhibiting non-nulling emission possess obliquity angles with an average of 42°.5,and almost half the samples maintain a duty cycle between 0.05 and 0.2.Furthermore,the pulsar population is not fixed but dependent on the obliquity angle,with the population peaking at 20°.In addition,three evolutionary phases are identified in the pulsar population as the obliquity angle evolves,with the majority of samples having an obliquity angle between 20°and 65°.Our results also suggest that emission from a pulsar may evolve between nulling and non-nulling during its lifetime.

A Fermi-LAT Study of Globular Cluster Dynamical Evolution in the Milky Way:Millisecond Pulsars as the Probe

Using archival Fermi-LAT data with a time span of~12 yr,we study the population of Millisecond Pulsars(MSPs)in Globular Clusters(GlCs)and investigate their dependence on cluster dynamical evolution in the Milky Way.We show that theγ-ray luminosity(L_(γ))and emissivity(i.e.,ε_(γ)=L_(γ)/M,with M the cluster mass)are good indicators of the population and abundance of MSPs in GlCs,and they are highly dependent on the dynamical evolution history of the host clusters.Specifically speaking,the dynamically older GlCs with more compact structures are more likely to have larger L_(γ)andε_(γ),and these trends can be summarized as strong correlations with cluster stellar encounter rateΓand the specific encounter rate(Λ=Γ/M),with L_(γ)∝Γ^(0.7±0.11)andε_(γ)∝Λ^(0.73±0.13)for dynamically normal GlCs.However,as GlCs evolve into deep core collapse,these trends are found to be reversed,implying that strong encounters may have lead to the disruption of Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and ejection of MSPs from core-collapsed systems.Besides,the GlCs are found to exhibit largerε_(γ)with increasing stellar mass function slope(ε_(γ)∝10^((0.52±0.1)α)),decreasing tidal radius(ε_(γ)∝R_(t)^(-10±0.22))and distances from the Galactic Center(GC,ε_(γ)∝R_(gc)^(-1.13±0.21)).These correlations indicate that,as GlCs losing kinetic energy and spiral in toward the GC,tidal stripping and mass segregation have a preference in leading to the loss of normal stars from GlCs,while MSPs are more likely to concentrate to cluster center and be deposited into the GC.Moreover,we gaugeε_(γ)of GlCs is~10-1000 times larger than the Galactic bulge,the latter is thought to reside thousands of unresolved MSPs and may be responsible for the GC 7-ray excess,which supports that GlCs are generous contributors to the population of MSPs in the GC.

Pulsar Glitch Activities:The Spin Parameters Approach

Glitch activity refers to the mean increase in pulsar spin frequency per year due to rotational glitches.It is an important tool for studying super-nuclear matter using neutron star interiors as templates.Glitch events are typically observed in the spin frequency(ν) and frequency derivative( ν) of pulsars.The rate of glitch recurrence decreases as the pulsar ages,and the activity parameter is usually measured by linear regression of cumulative glitches over a given period.This method is effective for pulsars with multiple regular glitch events.However,due to the scarcity of glitch events and the difficulty of monitoring all known pulsars,only a few have multiple records of glitch events.This limits the use of the activity parameter in studying neutron star interiors with multiple pulsars.In this study,we examined the relationship between the activity parameters and pulsar spin parameters(spin frequency,frequency derivative,and pulsar characteristic age).We found that a quadratic function provides a better fit for the relationship between activity parameters and spin parameters than the commonly used linear functions.Using this information,we were able to estimate the activity parameters of other pulsars that do not have records of glitches.Our analysis shows that the relationship between the estimated activity parameters and pulsar spin parameters is consistent with that of the observed activity parameters in the ensemble of pulsars.

PSRDP:A Parallel Processing Method for Pulsar Baseband Data

To address the problem of real-time processing of ultra-wide bandwidth pulsar baseband data,we designed and implemented a pulsar baseband data processing algorithm(PSRDP)based on GPU parallel computing technology.PSRDP can perform operations such as baseband data unpacking,channel separation,coherent dedispersion,Stokes detection,phase and folding period prediction,and folding integration in GPU clusters.We tested the algorithm using the J0437-4715 pulsar baseband data generated by the CASPSR and Medusa backends of the Parkes,and the J0332+5434 pulsar baseband data generated by the self-developed backend of the Nan Shan Radio Telescope.We obtained the pulse profiles of each baseband data.Through experimental analysis,we have found that the pulse profiles generated by the PSRDP algorithm in this paper are essentially consistent with the processing results of Digital Signal Processing Software for Pulsar Astronomy(DSPSR),which verified the effectiveness of the PSRDP algorithm.Furthermore,using the same baseband data,we compared the processing speed of PSRDP with DSPSR,and the results showed that PSRDP was not slower than DSPSR in terms of speed.The theoretical and technical experience gained from the PSRDP algorithm research in this article lays a technical foundation for the real-time processing of QTT(Qi Tai radio Telescope)ultra-wide bandwidth pulsar baseband data.

The Influence of Different Solar System Planetary Ephemerides on Pulsar Timing

Pulsar timing offers a comprehensive avenue for exploring diverse topics in physics and astrophysics.Highprecision solar system planetary ephemeris is crucial for pulsar timing as it provides the positions and velocities of solar system planets including the Earth.However,it is inevitable that inherent inconsistencies exist in these ephemerides.Differences between various ephemerides can significantly impact pulsar timing and parameter estimations.Currently,pulsar timing highly depends on the JPL DE ephemeris,for instance,the Pulsar Timing Array data analysis predominantly utilizes DE436.In this study,we examine inconsistencies across various ephemeris series,including JPL DE,EPM,and INPOP.Notably,discrepancies emerge particularly between the current ephemeris DE436 and the earliest released ephemeris DE200,as well as the most recent ephemerides,e.g.,DE440,INPOP21A,and EPM2021.Further detailed analysis of the effects of ephemeris on geometric correction procedures for the conversion of measured topocentric times of arrival is presented in this study.Our researches reveal that variations in the Roemer delays across different ephemerides lead to distinct differences.The timing residuals and the fact that these discrepancies can be readily incorporated into the subsequent pulsar parameters,leading to inconsistent fitting estimates,suggest that the influence of errors in the ephemeris on the timing process might currently be underappreciated.

Timing and Single-pulse Study of Pulsar J1909+0122 Discovered by CRAFTS

We report the discovery of PSR J1909+0122 by the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope(FAST)as part of the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey.PSR J1909+0122 has a spin period of 1.257 s and a dispersion measure of 186.2 pc cm^(-3).The averaged pulse profile shows two distinct components.We performed a single-pulse study based on a one-hour observation at 1.25 GHz on 2021 August 23.We used a threshold of 5σ_(ep) to measure the nulling fraction(NF)as 63%±1.5%.The longitude-resolved fluctuation spectra and fast Fourier transform spectra of the binary sequences revealed the quasi-periodicity of nulling with a period of 30 rotation periods.We examined the reliability of the periodicity by comparing it to random noise injection.The NF,E,and modulation periodicity P_(M) of PSR J1909+0122 were compared with other periodic nulling pulsars,showing that the source of J1909+0122 has the second largest NF in the population.Long-term timing observations over six months were used to derive the phase-connected ephemeris of this pulsar.The measured P and P values disfavor dipolar geometry for polar gap models,and the prediction for a space-charge-limited flow model in the case of inverse Compton scattering is only just above the death line.In this work,PSR J1909+0122 has revealed possible correlations between nulling behavior and pulsar properties,which will help to shed light on the pulsar emission mechanism and its temporal evolution in future observations.

On the Nature of Long Period Radio Pulsar GPM J1839-10:Death Line and Pulse Width

Recently another long period radio pulsar GPM J1839-10 has been reported,similar to GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3.Previously,the energy budget and rotational evolution of long period radio pulsars had been considered.This time,the death line and pulse width for neutron star and white dwarf pulsars are investigated.The pulse width is included as the second criterion for neutron star and white dwarf pulsars.It is found that:(1)PSR J0250+5854 and PSR J0901-4046 etc.should be normal radio pulsars.They have narrow pulse width and they lie near the radio emission death line.(2)The two long period radio pulsars GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3 and GPM J1839-10 are unlikely to be normal radio pulsars.Their possible pulse width is relatively large.They lie far below the fiducial death line on the P-P^(·)diagram.(3)GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3 and GPM J1839-10 may be magnetars or white dwarf radio pulsars.At present,there are many parameters and uncertainties in both of these possibilities.

Single-pulse Emission Variation of Two Pulsars Discovered by FAST

We investigate the single-pulse emission variations of two pulsars,PSRs J0211+4235 and J0553+4111,observed with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope at the 1.25 GHz central frequency.The observation sessions span from 2020 December to 2021 July,with 21 and 22 observations for them respectively.The integrated pulse profile of PSR J0211+4235 shows that there is a weak pulse component following the main component,and PSR J0553+4111 displays a bimodal profile with a bridge component in the middle.PSR J0211+4235 presents significant nulling phenomenon with nulling duration lasting from 2 to 115 pulses and burst duration lasting from 2 to 113 pulses.The NF of each observation is determined to be 45%-55%.No emission greater than threeσis found in the mean integrated profile of all nulling pulses.In most cases,the pulse energy changes abruptly during the transition from null to burst,while in the transition from burst to null there are two trends:abrupt and gradual.We find that the nulling phenomenon of PSR J0211+4235 is periodic by the Fourier transform of the null and burst state.In addition,the single-pulse modulation characteristics of these two pulsars are investigated,and the distributions of modulation index,LRFS and 2DFS are analyzed with PSRSALSA.The left peak of PSR J0553+4111 has intensity modulation.Finally,the polarization properties of these two pulsars are obtained through polarization calibration,and their characteristics are analyzed.The possible physical mechanisms of these phenomena are discussed.

Reciprocating Magnetic Fields in the Pulsar Wind Observed from the Black Widow Pulsar J1720-0534

We report the radio observations of the eclipsing black widow pulsar J1720-0534, a 3.26 ms pulsar in orbit with a low mass companion of mass 0.029 to 0.034 M⊙. We obtain the phase-connected timing ephemeris and polarization profile of this millisecond pulsar(MSP) using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST), the Green Bank Telescope(GBT), and the Parkes Telescope. For the first time from such a system, an oscillatory polarization angle change was observed from a particular eclipse egress with partial depolarization, indicating 10-milliGauss-level reciprocating magnetic fields oscillating in a length scale of 5 ×10^(3)km(assuming an orbital inclination angle of 90°) outside the companion's magnetosphere. The dispersion measure variation observed during the ingresses and egresses shows the rapid raising of the electron density in the shock boundary between the companion's magnetosphere and the surrounding pulsar wind. We suggest that the observed oscillatory magnetic fields originate from the pulsar wind outside the companion's magnetosphere.

FAST Detects Distinct“Dwarf”Pulses during Nulling State of a Pulsar

Using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST),a research team led by Prof.HAN Jinlin from the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(NAOC)has detected distinct“dwarf pulses”from an aged pulsar PSR B2111+46,and studied the radio emission in unprecedented details and probed the elusive physics in the magnetosphere.

Searching for the Nano-Hertz Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data ReleaseⅠ

Observing and timing a group of millisecond pulsars with high rotational stability enables the direct detection of gravitational waves(GWs).The GW signals can be identified from the spatial correlations encoded in the times-of-arrival of widely spaced pulsar-pairs.The Chinese Pulsar Timing Array(CPTA)is a collaboration aiming at the direct GW detection with observations carried out using Chinese radio telescopes.This short article serves as a“table of contents”for a forthcoming series of papers related to the CPTA Data Release 1(CPTA DR1)which uses observations from the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope.Here,after summarizing the time span and accuracy of CPTA DR1,we report the key results of our statistical inference finding a correlated signal with amplitude logA_(c)=-14.4_(-2.8)^(+1.0)for spectral index in the range ofα∈[-1.8,1.5]assuming a GW background(GWB)induced quadrupolar correlation.The search for the Hellings–Downs(HD)correlation curve is also presented,where some evidence for the HD correlation has been found that a 4.6σstatistical significance is achieved using the discrete frequency method around the frequency of 14 n Hz.We expect that the future International Pulsar Timing Array data analysis and the next CPTA data release will be more sensitive to the n Hz GWB,which could verify the current results.

Pulsar Discovery Prospect of FASTA

The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)has discovered more than 650 new pulsars,which account for 20%of our known Galactic pulsar population.In this paper,we estimate the prospect of a pulsar survey with a radio telescope array to be planned—the FAST Array(FASTA),consists of six“FAST-type”telescopes.Such a sensitive radio telescope array would be a powerful instrument in probing the pulsar population deep into our Galaxy as well as in nearby galaxies.We simulate the FASTA pulsar discovery prospects with different Galactic pulsar population models and instrumental parameter combinations.We find that FASTA could detect tens of thousands of canonical pulsars and well-over thousands of millisecond pulsars.We also estimate the potential yield if the FASTA is used to search for pulsars from the nearby spiral galaxy M31,and find that it would probably discover around a hundred new radio pulsars.

The FAST Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot Survey.II.Discovery of 76 Galactic Rotating Radio Transients and the Enigma of RRATs

We have carried out the Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot(GPPS)survey by using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST),the most sensitive systematic pulsar survey in the Galactic plane.In addition to more than 500 pulsars already discovered through normal periodical search,we report here the discovery of 76 new transient radio sources with sporadic strong pulses,detected by using the newly developed module for a sensitive single-pulse search.Their small DM values suggest that they all are Galactic rotating radio transients(RRATs).They show different properties in the follow-up observations.More radio pulses have been detected from 26 transient radio sources but no periods can be found due to a limited small number of pulses from all FAST observations.The followup observations show that 16 transient sources are newly identified as being the prototypes of RRATs with a period already determined from more detected sporadic pulses,and 10 sources are extremely nulling pulsars,and 24 sources are weak pulsars with sparse strong pulses.On the other hand,48 previously known RRATs have been detected by the FAST,either during verification observations for the GPPS survey or through targeted observations of applied normal FAST projects.Except for one RRAT with four pulses detected in a session of 5-minute observation and four RRATs with only one pulse detected in a session,sensitive FAST observations reveal that 43 RRATs are just generally weak pulsars with sporadic strong pulses or simply very nulling pulsars,so that the previously known RRATs always have an extreme emission state together with a normal hardly detectable weak emission state.This is echoed by the two normal pulsars J1938+2213 and J1946+1449 with occasional brightening pulses.Though strong pulses of RRATs are very outstanding in the energy distribution,their polarization angle variations follow the polarization angle curve of the averaged normal pulse profile,suggesting that the predominant sparse pulses of RRATs are emitted in the same region with the same geometry as normal weak pulsars.

FAST Pulsar Database.I.Polarization Profiles of 682 Pulsars

Pulsar polarization profiles form a very basic database for understanding the emission processes in a pulsar magnetosphere.After careful polarization calibration of the 19-beam L-band receiver and verification of beamoffset observation results,we obtain polarization profiles of 682 pulsars from observations by the Five-hundredmeter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope(FAST)duringthe Galactic Plane Pulsar Snapshot survey and other normal FAST projects.Among them,polarization profiles of about 460 pulsars are observed for the first time.The profiles exhibit diverse features.Some pulsars have a polarization position angle curve with a good S-shaped swing,some with orthogonal modes;some have components with highly linearly polarized components or strong circularly polarized components;some have a very wide profile,coming from an aligned rotator,and some have an interpulse from a perpendicular rotator;some wide profiles are caused by interstellar scattering.We derive geometric parameters for 190 pulsars from the S-shaped position angle curves or with orthogonal modes.We find that the linear and circular polarization or the widths of pulse profiles have various frequency dependencies.Pulsars with a large fraction of linear polarization are more likely to have a large Edot.

Pulsar Candidate Classification Using a Computer Vision Method from a Combination of Convolution and Attention

Artificial intelligence methods are indispensable to identifying pulsars from large amounts of candidates.We develop a new pulsar identification system that utilizes the CoAtNet to score two-dimensional features of candidates,implements a multilayer perceptron to score one-dimensional features,and relies on logistic regression to judge the corresponding scores.In the data preprocessing stage,we perform two feature fusions separately,one for one-dimensional features and the other for two-dimensional features,which are used as inputs for the multilayer perceptron and the CoAtNet respectively.The newly developed system achieves 98.77%recall,1.07%false positive rate(FPR)and 98.85%accuracy in our GPPS test set.