Presented By:

Sameer Sharma, 20244 | Animesh Patra, 20041

Course: Numerical Methods in Programming

Instructor: Dr. Nirmal Ganguly
Special Thanks to: Dr. Mayuresh Surnis
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 OBJECTIVES 02 METHODOLOGY
Introduction Procedures
Mathematical Formalism Codes

03 RESULTS ANALYSIS 04 CONCLUSIONS

Results
Lets Conclude !
Discussions
 INTRODUCTION
Pulsars: Cosmic Lighthouses
From Stellar Death to Pulsar Birth
Time of Arrival
Signal Detection and Measurement
 Exploring the “Cosmic lighthouses”
INTRODUCTION
• Pulsars are highly magnetized, rotating neutron stars that emit beams of EM radiation.
• Discovered in 1967 by Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Antony Hewish.
• Known for their extremely accurate time-keeping abilities.

PROPERTIES
• Highly magnetic fields up to a billion times stronger than Earth's.
• Rotational periods range from milliseconds to several seconds.
• Emit radiation across the EM spectrum, including radio waves, X-rays, and γ rays.

APPLICATIONS
• Navigation: Pulsars are used as a natural GPS system in space exploration.
• Gravitational Waves: Pulsar Timing Arrays are used to detect and study gravitational waves.
• Astrophysics: Pulsars provide a unique tool for studying the properties of matter under extreme conditions.
• Technology: Pulsars are used in the development of new technologies, such as high-precision clocks.
 The birth of “Cosmic Clocks”

13 x Jupiter’s Mass 80 x Jupiter’s Mass

Sun
Theoretical Limit
of Brown Dwarfs !
Planet
Brown Dwarf
Theoretical Limit 150 x Sun’s Mass
of a Star ! Star Burst !

1.41 x Sun’s Mass

(Chandrashekar
limit)

From Earth: Crab Pulsar Pulsars ! White Dwarf

 Time of Arrival (TOA)
• Pulsars emit beams of EM radiation from their magnetic poles which sweep across space, creating a
periodic signal that can be detected by radio telescopes on Earth.

• TOA refers to the exact moment that the pulsar signal arrives at a radio telescope on Earth.

• TOA measurements are incredibly precise, with accuracies on the order of microseconds or better.

• To make TOA measurements, astronomers use highly sophisticated mathematical models known as
pulsar timing models.

• TOA measurements can be used to study a variety of astrophysical phenomena, including the
properties of the pulsar itself, the structure of our galaxy, and the properties of gravitational waves.
 Signal Detection
Pulsars emit regular radio pulses, which can be measured from Earth using radio telescopes. The process of
measuring pulsar signals involves the following steps:
• Telescope Observation: A radio telescope is pointed at the location of the pulsar in the sky.

• Signal Detection: The pulsar signal is received by the telescope and detected using a radio receiver.

• Signal Processing: The detected signal is then processed to remove noise and interference from other
sources, such as man-made radio signals.

• Signal Analysis: The processed signal is analyzed to determine the arrival time and other properties of
the pulsar pulses.

Signal Detection

Signal
Pulsar Signal Processing
& Analysis

Telescope Observation
 If all the mathematics
disappeared, physics would
be set back by exactly one
week
—RICHARD P. FEYNMAN
 Mathematical Formalism of Timing Model

Observed Profile 𝑝 𝑡 = The observed profile is the actual pulse profile that a telescope at regular intervals of time.
It's like a snapshot of the pulsar's pulse at a specific moment in time,

Standard Profile 𝑠 𝑡 = Reference picture of a pulsar's pulse shape, like a blueprint or a template. It's made by
averaging many individual pulse profiles recorded by telescopes over time, hence it is unique to a Pulsar !

Mathematically, 𝑝(𝑡) = 𝑎 + 𝑏𝑠(𝑡 − 𝜏 ) + 𝑔(𝑡)

Template Matching :
• Template matching is a method used to compare the observed profile, 𝑝 𝑡 of a pulsar with a reference or
standard profile, 𝑠 𝑡 .
• Involves shifting 𝑠 𝑡 in time and scaling it in amplitude to match 𝑝 𝑡 as closely as possible.
• The time shift and amplitude scaling factors that provide the best match are then used to determine the pulse
arrival time and other parameters of interest.
 Mathematical Formalism of Timing Model

• The profiles are sampled and recorded at equally spaced intervals of time, 𝑡𝑗 = 𝑗 ∆𝑡, 𝑗 = 0, 1, . . . , 𝑁 − 1
• Before sampling, the detected signals will have been low-pass filtered at a cut-off frequency 𝑓𝑐 ≤ (2 ∆𝑡)−1

• 𝑃𝑘 and 𝑆𝑘 are Fourier coefficients which are related as (With some random Noise, 𝐺𝑘 ):
𝑃𝑘 𝑒𝑥𝑝 𝑖𝜃𝑘 = 𝑎 𝑁 + 𝑏𝑆𝑘 𝑒𝑥𝑝[𝑖(𝜙𝑘 + 𝑘𝜏 )] + 𝐺𝑘 , 𝑘 = 0, … (𝑁 − 1)

• The desired pulse time of arrival 𝜏 , as well as the gain factor b, can be obtained by minimizing the goodness-
of-fit statistic:
𝑁/2
2
2
𝑃𝑘 − 𝑏𝑆𝑘 exp[𝑖 𝜙𝑘 − 𝜃𝑘 + 𝑘𝜏 ]
𝜒 𝑏, 𝜏 = ෎
𝜎𝑘
𝑘=1

𝜙𝑘 and 𝜃𝑘 are Phases, “a” is the bias, 𝜎𝑘 is the root-to-mean-square amplitude of the noise at frequency 𝑘
 Mathematical Formalism of Timing Model

Taking Partial Derivative to determine the pulse time of arrival 𝜏 , as well as the gain factor b we get:

𝜕𝜒 2 2𝑏
= 2 ෍ 𝑘𝑃𝑘 𝑆𝑘 sin 𝜙𝑘 − 𝜃𝑘 + 𝑘𝜏 = 0 Solved using Brent’s Method
𝜕𝜏 𝜎

𝜕𝜒 2 2𝑏 2 σ 𝑃𝑘 𝑆𝑘 cos 𝜙𝑘 − 𝜃𝑘 + 𝑘𝜏
= 2 𝛴 𝑆𝑘2 − 2 𝛴𝑃𝑘 𝑆𝑘 cos 𝜙𝑘 − 𝑘𝜏 = 0 ⇒ 𝑏 =
𝜕𝑏 𝜎 𝜎 ෌ 𝑆𝑘2

And the Uncertainties:

−1 −1
𝜕2𝜒2 𝜎2 2
𝜕2𝜒2
2
𝜎𝜏 = = 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝜎𝑏 = = 𝜎 2 2𝛴𝑆𝑘2
𝜕𝜏 2 2𝑏 σ 𝑘 2 𝑃𝑘 𝑆𝑘 cos 𝜙𝑘 − 𝜃𝑘 + 𝑘𝜏 𝜕𝑏 2
Digging Into The Actual Data

Let’s Go !!!
 Overview of the Algorithms Used

• FAST FOURIER TRANSFORM

The main motivation behind this algorithm is to reduce the computation time from θ(N2) in
discrete Fourier transform to θ(N log N ). The idea is to “divide and conquer” like those
used in sorting algorithms. The simplest fast Fourier transform algorithm is accomplished with
the observation that we can separate the odd and even terms in the discrete Fourier transform
as: 𝑁 Τ2−1 𝑁 Τ2−1

𝑔𝑗 = ෍ 𝑓2𝑘 𝑒 −𝑖2𝜋𝑗(2𝑘)/𝑁 + ෍ 𝑓2𝑘+1 𝑒 −𝑖2𝜋𝑗(2𝑘+1)/𝑁

𝑘=0 𝑘=0

= 𝑥𝑗 + 𝑦𝑗 𝑒 −𝑖2𝜋𝑗/𝑁
where,
𝑁 Τ2−1 𝑁
xj = ෍ 𝑓2𝑘 𝑒 −𝑖2𝜋𝑗(𝑘)/( 2 )
𝑘=0

𝑁 Τ2−1 𝑁
yj = ෍ 𝑓2𝑘+1 𝑒 −𝑖2𝜋𝑗(𝑘)/( 2 )
𝑘=0
 Overview of the Algorithms Used

• BRENT’S METHOD

It is an algorithm used for minimization of a function. In principle, it is just a parabolic

interpolation (an inverse parabolic interpolation to be precise) with some added conditions with
ensures that the algorithm converges to an answer. The formula for the abscissa x that is the
minimum of a parabola through three points f (a), f (b), and f (c) is
1 (𝑏−𝑎)2 𝑓 𝑏 −𝑓 𝑐 − 𝑏−𝑐 2 [𝑓 𝑏 −𝑓(𝑎)]
𝑥=𝑏 − ( 𝑏−𝑎 𝑓 𝑏 −𝑓(𝑐) −(𝑏−𝑐)[𝑓 𝑏 −𝑓(𝑎)] )
2

This formula fails only if the three points are collinear, in which case the denominator is zero.
The exacting task is to invent a scheme that relies on a sure-but-slow technique, Brent method
is one such algorithm.
CODE
CODE
GRAPH
 CONCLUSIONS
The time of arrival is given by 𝑇. 𝑂. 𝐴 = 𝑇 + 0.5𝑃 + 𝜏 , where T is the start of the measurement, P
is the topocentric period and τ is shift we measure in the FFT plot.

τ b T.O.A
22251.4252534 s
(fractional day)
0.0942891670 s 0.0262722616
56354.257537
(MJD)

The fractional day is the number of seconds passed from the start of the day. MJD or Modified Julien
Calendar counts the number of days passed since midnight of November 17, 1858.
 SCOPE OF IMPROVEMENT
The FFT algorithm we coded is applicable to N = 2m data points. However it is possible to make more
general algorithm for any number of data points, as was first proposed by Cooley and Tuckey in their
original paper on FFT.

There exist improvements on brent’s method also, however those come with some added conditions on
the stability of the function it is applied on. It remains for us to explore those methods as well.

The code was run only for one session of data collection which involved 603 samples to create a
observation template with 128 bins. However more data from multiple session would naturally lead to
a better analysis.
 BIBLIOGRAPHICAL REFERENCES

● J.H. Taylor (1992)

Pulsar Timing and Relativistic Gravity,
Philosophical Transactions of Royal Society
● TAO PANG
An Introduction to Computional Physics,
Cambridge

● AUTHOR (2015)
Numerical Recipes,
W. Press, S.Teukolsky, W. Vetterling, B. Flannery