Parkes observations for project P456 semester 2006APRS

The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) project has three main goals: detection of gravitational waves from astronomical sources, investigation of the stability of terrestrial clocks and improvement of our understanding of Solar-system dynamics. Achievement of these goals requires frequent observations of about 20 MSPs at two or preferably three widely spaced frequencies over several years. We propose to observe such a sample at 2-weekly intervals using both the 10/50cm and Multibeam or H-OH receivers. The prototype digital filterbank, the wideband correlator and CPSR2 will be used for data recording. With continued development of observing and data analysis systems we are making good progress toward our goals with sub-microsecond precision already achieved on nearly half of the sample. Further improvement is expected with the commissioning of the final digital filterbank system and development of a new-generation baseband system based on it. Because of the high sensitivity and wide bandwidths required, RFI mitigation is an important part of the project. We hope to achieve real-time removal of the digital TV signals in the 50cm band this semester.

帕克斯脉冲星计时阵列（Parkes Pulsar Timing Array，PPTA）项目有三个主要目标：探测来自天文源的引力波、研究地面时钟的稳定性以及改进我们对太阳系动力学的理解。实现这些目标需要在数年时间内，对约20颗毫秒脉冲星（Millisecond Pulsars，MSPs）在两个或优选三个间隔较大的频率上进行频繁观测。我们提议使用10/50cm接收器和多波束（Multibeam）接收器或H-OH接收器，每两周对这类样本进行一次观测。原型数字滤波器组、宽带相关器和CPSR2将用于数据记录。随着观测和数据分析系统的持续发展，我们在实现目标方面取得了良好进展，近一半样本已达到亚微秒精度。随着最终数字滤波器组系统的调试以及基于该系统的新一代基带系统的开发，预计将取得进一步改进。由于需要高灵敏度和宽带宽，射频干扰（RFI）抑制是该项目的重要组成部分。我们希望本学期能在50cm波段实现数字电视信号的实时去除。