Parkes observations for project P594 semester 2007OCTS

In a small but very important subset of radio pulsars, we see emission from both magnetic poles, separated by half the pulse period in time. Crucially, the geometry of these `interpulse' pulsars are known; they must be orthogonal rotators and our line of sight must pass very close to the magnetic pole. Amazingly, in PSR B1702-19, Weltevrede et al. (2007) showed that the main and interpulse emission are modulated IN PHASE over periods of years, which implies that the two poles of the star somehow communicate with each other.\nTheoretical models are being worked on, but so far no satisfactory communcation channel has been found. We propose to observe 3 bright, southern interpulse pulsars to determine whether this communication also happens in other objects, or whether PSR B1702-19 is a unique source.

在射电脉冲星的一个小但极其重要的子集中，我们观测到来自两个磁极的辐射，它们在时间上相隔半个脉冲周期。关键的是，这些间脉冲脉冲星（interpulse pulsars）的几何结构是已知的：它们必须是正交旋转体（orthogonal rotators），且我们的视线方向必须非常接近磁极。令人惊讶的是，Weltevrede等人（2007）在PSR B1702-19中发现，主脉冲和间脉冲辐射在数年时间尺度上呈现同相调制，这意味着该星的两个磁极之间以某种方式存在通信。
理论模型正在研究中，但迄今为止尚未找到令人满意的通信通道。我们计划观测3颗明亮的南天间脉冲脉冲星，以确定这种通信现象是否也存在于其他天体中，或者PSR B1702-19是否是唯一的此类源。