Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2022OCTS_15

With this proposal we ask time to continue our timing follow-up campaign of pulsars discovered with the MeerKAT telescope. Eighteen sources have been discovered in targeted observations of Fermi unidentified point sources, six in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 54 in Globular Clusters and 66 in a survey of the Galactic plane. A large fraction of the new discoveries are recycled pulsars (including at least one double neutron star system and several 'spider' binaries), or young pulsars. Timing observations have an essential role in exploiting the full potential of any pulsar discovery, allowing the precise measurement of rotational, astrometric and orbital parameters which, in turn, give us powerful tools to improve our understanding of the physics in extreme environments as well as of the population of neutron stars as a whole. The UWL receiver of the Parkes telescope is a sensitive, versatile instrument that is allowing us to successfully time these new sources, in the bright-end of TRAPUM discoveries. The UWL has also the unique advantage of allowing detailed studies of the eclipses of the so-called 'spider' pulsars, which make up about 1/3rd of the sources we aim at following-up with this project.

本观测提案旨在申请观测时长，以持续开展基于MeerKAT望远镜（MeerKAT Telescope）发现的脉冲星计时后续观测项目。此前通过靶向观测费米（Fermi）未证认点源共发现18颗脉冲星，在小麦哲伦星系（Small Magellanic Cloud）中发现6颗，在球状星团（Globular Clusters）中发现54颗，在银道面（Galactic Plane）巡天中发现66颗。本次新发现的脉冲星中，绝大多数为再循环脉冲星（含至少1个双中子星系统与多颗“蜘蛛型”双星系统脉冲星），或是年轻脉冲星。计时观测对于充分发挥脉冲星发现的全部科研潜力至关重要：通过计时观测可精确测量脉冲星的自转、天体测量与轨道参数，进而为我们研究极端物理环境下的物理规律以及整体中子星族群提供强有力的研究工具。帕克斯望远镜（Parkes Telescope）搭载的UWL接收机（UWL Receiver）是一台高灵敏度多用途观测设备，能够帮助我们顺利完成这批新发现脉冲星的计时观测——这批源均属于TRAPUM巡天发现的亮源样本。此外，UWL接收机还具备独特优势：可对所谓“蜘蛛型”脉冲星的食变现象开展精细研究，而这类脉冲星约占本次项目后续观测目标源总数的三分之一。