Scuola nazionale de Astrofisica

Radio Pulsars 1: Pulsar Basics

Dick Manchester
Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO

Outline
Rotating neutron stars, SN associations, Binaries, MSPs
Pulse profiles, polarisation, beaming, RVM model
Pulse fluctuations: drifting, nulling, mode changing
 Basic References
Books
Manchester & Taylor 1977 Pulsars
Lyne & Smith 2005 Pulsar Astronomy
Lorimer & Kramer 2005 Handbook of Pulsar Astronomy

Review Articles
Rickett 1990, ARAA - Scintillation
Science, 23 April 2004 - Three articles: NS, Isolated Pulsars, Binary
Pulsars
Living Reviews articles: (http://relativity.livingreviews.org/Articles)
Stairs 2003: GR and pulsar timing
Lorimer 2005: Binary and MS pulsars
Will, 2006: GR theory and experiment
SKA science: New Astron.Rev. 48 (2004)
Cordes et al.: Pulsars as tools
Kramer et al.: Strong-field tests of GR
 The Discovery of Pulsars

Jocelyn Bell and Tony Hewish

The sound of a pulsar: Bonn, August 1980
 Spin-Powered Pulsars: A Census
Number of known
pulsars: 1765
Number of millisecond
pulsars: 170
Number of binary
pulsars: 131
Number of AXPs: 12
Number of pulsars in
globular clusters: 99*
Number of
extragalactic pulsars: 20

* Total known: 129 in 24 clusters

Data from ATNF Pulsar Catalogue, V1.25
(Paulo Freires web page)
(www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/psrcat; Manchester et al. 2005)
 Pulsar Model
Rotating neutron star
Light cylinder RLC = c/ =
5 x 104 P(s) km
Charge flow along open field
lines
Radio beam from magnetic
pole (in most cases)
High-energy emission from
outer magnetosphere
Rotation braked by reaction
to magnetic-dipole radiation
.
and/or charge acceleration:
= -K -3 .
Characteristic age: c = P/(2P)
.
Surface dipole magnetic field:
Bs ~ (PP)1/2
(Bennet Link)
 Pulsar Formation
~30 young pulsars associated with SNR
Core of red giant collapses when its mass exceeds
Chandrasekhar Mass
Energy release ~ 3GM/5R2 ~ 3 x 1053 erg ~ 0.1 Mc2
Kinetic energy of SNR ~ 1051 erg; 99% of grav.
energy radiated as neutrinos and anti-neutrinos
Asymmetry in neutrino ejection gives kick to NS
ESO-VLT
Measured proper motions: <V2D> = 211 km s-1
<V3D> = 4<V2D>/ = 2<V1D> for isotropic velocities Guitar Nebula

PSR B2224+65

(Hobbs et al. 2005) (Cordes et al. 2003)

 Neutron Stars
Formed in Type II supernova explosion -
core collapse of massive star
Diameter 20 - 30 km
Mass ~ 1.4 Msun

(MT77)

(Stairs 2004) (Lattimer & Prakash 2004)

 .
P vs P
Galactic disk pulsars
.
Most pulsars have P ~ 10-15
.
MSPs have P smaller by
about 5 orders of magnitude
Most MSPs are binary
Only a few percent of normal
pulsars are binary
AXPs are slow X-ray pulsars
with very strong fields -
magnetars
Some young pulsars are only
detected at X-ray or -ray
wavelengths

ATNF Pulsar Catalogue

(www.atnf.csiro.au/research/pulsar/psrcat)
 Pulsar Recycling
Young pulsars live for 106 or 107 years
MSPs have c 109 or 1010 years and most are binary
Accretion from an evolving binary companion leads to:
Increased spin rate for NS - angular momentum transferred from orbit to NS
Decreased Bs - mechanism not understood. Could be simple burial of
field by accreted matter . . -3/7
Minimum spin period: Pmin ~ (B9) (M/MEdd)
6/7

Short-period MSPs from low-mass binary companions - long evolution time

Recycling is very effective in globular clusters - more than half of all MSPs in
globular clusters: 22 in 47 Tucanae, 33 in Terzan 5 (Ransom et al. 2005, Friere 2007)
Old NS in core of cluster captured by low-mass stars and 47 Tucanae

then recycled
About 30% of MSPs are single - what has happened to
companion?
Blown away by relativistic wind from pulsar - ?
Lost in 3-body encounter - only in core of globular
cluster
 Pulsar Energetics
Spin-down Luminosity:

Radio Luminosity:
 Pulsar Electrodynamics
For a typical pulsar, P = 1s and P = 10-15, Bs ~ 108 T or 1012 G.
Typical electric field at the stellar surface E ~ RBs/c ~ 109 V/cm
Electrons reach ultra-relativistic energies in < 1 mm.
Emit -ray photons by curvature radiation. These have energy >> 1
MeV and hence decay into electron-positron pairs in strong B field.
These in turn are accelerated to ultra-relativistic energies and in turn
pair-produce, leading to a cascade of e+/e- pairs.
Relativistic pair-plasma flows out along open field lines.
Instabilities lead to generation of radiation beams at radio to -ray
energies.
Rotating neutron-star model: magnetospheric gaps
.B = 0
Regions of particle
acceleration!
Inner (polar cap) gap
Outer gaps

Cheng et al. (1986); Romani (2000)

 Coherent Radio Emission
Source power is very large, but source area
is very small
Specific intensity is very large
Pulse timescale gives limit on source size ~
ct
Brightness temperature: equivalent black-
body temperature in Rayleigh-Jeans limit

Radio emission must be from coherent process!

Frequency Dependence
of Mean Pulse Profile

Pulse width generally increases

with decreasing frequency.
Consistent with magnetic-pole
model for pulse emission.
Lower frequencies are emitted at
higher altitudes.

Phillips & Wolsczcan (1992)

Magnetic-Pole Model for Emission Beam
Emission beamed tangential to open field lines
Radiation polarised with position angle determined by projected
direction of magnetic field in (or near) emission region
(Rotating Vector Model)
 Mean pulse shapes and polarisation

P.A.
Stokes I

Linear

Stokes V

Lyne & Manchester (1988)

Orthogonal-mode emission PSR B2020+28

P.A.

%L

Stinebring et al. (1984)

 P.A. Mean pulse
profile of PSR
J0437-4715
Stokes I

Linear Binary millisecond

pulsar
P = 5.75 ms
Pb = 5.74 d
Stokes V

Complex profile, at least

seven components I

Complex PA variation, L
including orthogonal
transition V
Navarro et al. (1997)
 Wide Beams from Young and MS Pulsars
Crab Pulsed (non-thermal) X-ray and -ray profiles from
young pulsars have wide double shape
Emitted from field lines high in magnetosphere
associated with a single magnetic pole
Some young radio pulsars have a similar pulse profile,
e.g. PSR B1259-63
(Ulmer et al. 1994) Class of young pulsars with very high (~100%) linear
polarisation, e.g. Vela, PSR B0740-28
PSR B1259-63 Radio emission from high in pulsar magnetosphere?
MSPs also have very wide profiles - also single-pole
emission from high in magnetosphere?

PSR B0740-28
Other Examples:
Vela

PSR B0950+08

PSR J0737-3039A
 Drifting subpulses and periodic fluctuations
Drifting subpulses Periodic fluctuations

PULSE LONGITUDE

Taylor et al. (1975)

Backer (1973)
 Pulse Modulation
Extensive survey of pulse modulation
properties at Westerbork - 187 pulsars
Observations at 1.4 GHz, 80 MHz bw
Modulation indices, longitude-resolved
and 2D fluctuation spectra computed
42 new cases of drifting subpulses

At least 60% of all pulsars show

evidence for drifting behaviour
Coherent drifters have large
characteristic age,. but drifting seen
over most of P - P diagram
(Weltevrede et al. 2006)
 Pulsar Nulling

Parkes observations of 23 pulsars, mostly from PM survey

Large null fractions (up to 96%) - mostly long-period pulsars
Nulls often associated with mode changing (Wang et al. 2006)
 PSR B0826-34
P = 1.848 s, pulsed emission across
whole of pulse period
In null state ~80% of time
5-6 drift bands across profile, variable
drift rate with reversals
Weak emission in null phase, ~2% of
on flux density
Different pulse profile in null phase:
Null is really a mode change.

On

Null

(Esamdin et al. 2005)

 PSR B1931+24 - An extreme nuller

Quasi-periodic nulls: on for 5-10 d,

off for 25-35 d
Period derivative is ~35% smaller
when in null state!
Implies cessation of braking by
current with G-J density
Direct observation of current
(Kramer et al. 2006)
responsible for observed pulses
 Giant Pulses
Intense narrow pulses with a pulse energy many times that of an average pulse -
characterised by a power-law distribution of pulse energies.
First observed in the Crab pulsar - discovered through its giant pulses!

Arecibo observations Crab Giant Pulses

at 5.5 GHz
Bandwidth 0.5 GHz
gives 2 ns resolution
Flux density > 1000 Jy
implies Tb > 1037 K!
Highly variable
polarisation
Suggests emission
from plasma turbulence
on scales ~ 1 m
(Hankins et al. 2003)
 Giant Pulses from Millisecond Pulsars
PSR B1937+21
Giant pulses seen from several MSPs with
high BLC RXTE

Most also have pulsed non-thermal emission

at X-ray energies
Giant pulses occur at phase of X-ray emission
PSR J0218+4232 BeppoSAX

GBT 850 MHz

Radio

Chandra 0.1-10kev

(Cusumano et al. 2003)

(Knight et al. 2006, Kuiper et al. 2004,
Rutledge et al. 2004)
Transient Pulsed Radio Emission from a Magnetar
AXP XTE J1810-197 - 2003 outburst in which X-ray luminosity increased by
~100
X-ray pulsations with P = 5.54 s observed
Detected as a radio source at VLA, increasing and variable flux density:
5 - 10 mJy at 1.4 GHz (Halpern et al. 2005)
Within PM survey area, not detected in two obs. in 1997, 1998, S 1.4 < 0.4 mJy
Observed in March 2006 at Parkes (Camilo et al. 2006)
Pulsar detected!
S1.4 ~ 6 mJy
Very unusual flat spectrum -
individual pulses detected in
GBT observations at 42 GHz!

Earlier unconfirmed detections

(e.g. Malofeev et al 2005)
accounted for by transient and
highly variable nature of
pulsed emission?
End of Part 1