Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2021OCTS_04

With this proposal we ask time to continue our timing follow-up campaign of pulsars discovered with the MeerKAT telescope. Nine sources have been discovered in targeted observations of Fermi unidentified point sources, three in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 34 in Globular Clusters and six in a survey of the Galactic plane. Excluding GC sources (too dim to be followed up in the framework of this proposal), at least 12 new discoveries are recycled pulsars, one possibly with a neutron star companion, and two more have spin periods around 70 ms, making them potential mildly recycled 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.

本提案申请观测时长，以持续开展针对MeerKAT望远镜发现的脉冲星的计时后续观测项目。本次共发现脉冲星源52颗：其中通过对费米(Fermi)未证认点源的靶向观测发现9颗，小麦哲伦星系(Small Magellanic Cloud)中发现3颗，球状星团(Globular Clusters)中发现34颗，银道面巡天中发现6颗。剔除球状星团源（因亮度过低，无法在本提案框架内开展后续观测）后，至少12颗新发现源为再循环脉冲星，其中1颗可能拥有中子星伴星；另有2颗的自转周期约为70毫秒，属于潜在的弱再循环或年轻脉冲星。计时观测是充分挖掘脉冲星发现科学价值的核心环节，可实现自转参数、天体测量参数与轨道参数的精确测量，进而为我们研究极端环境下的物理规律及整体中子星族群提供强有力的研究工具。帕克斯(Parkes)望远镜的UWL接收机是一台高灵敏、多用途的观测仪器，可帮助我们成功对这批新发现源开展计时观测——这批源属于TRAPUM巡天发现的亮端样本。此外，UWL接收机还具备独特优势，可用于细致研究所谓的蜘蛛脉冲星(spider pulsars)的食现象；这类脉冲星约占本项目计划后续观测源的三分之一。