Parkes observations for project P1147 semester 2022APRS_01

Searching for the eclipsing millisecond pulsars with low-mass companions, namely black widow pulsars, led to the discovery of the first exoplanet. The properties and formation scenarios of the planetary-mass companions around millisecond pulsars are still unsolved questions. The companions and their atmospheres are likely to be ablated by the irradiation and the pulsar wind. We propose to probe atomic and molecular compositions in the gas ablated from the companion by searching for absorption lines or even maser emission against pulsars and simultaneously measure the magnetic field strengths directly through Zeeman splitting. Any detection would be a major discovery and thus help constrain the evolutionary history and the formation scenarios of planetary-mass companions of pulsars.