Parkes observations for project P1032 semester 2022OCTS_06

This project aims to continue to perform rapid measurements of relativistic parameters of southern binary pulsar systems using data from the Parkes Ultra Wideband Low (UWL) receiver and the MeerKAT telescope thereby enabling measurement of their component masses and in some cases, test theories of gravity. We will use the UWL data to obtain significant orbital coverage and timing baseline on these pulsars and obtain important constraints on orbital and temporal DM variations that will help in identifying the nature of the companion star. We will then use MeerKAT data at crucial orbital phases to improve our chances of measuring the relativistic parameters. Increase in the number of measured NS masses has profound implications for NS internal structure and for stellar and binary evolution physics.

本项目旨在利用帕克斯超宽带低（Parkes Ultra Wideband Low, UWL）接收机与米尔卡特（MeerKAT）望远镜的观测数据，持续开展南天双星脉冲星系统相对论参数的快速测量工作，从而实现对其组成恒星质量的测定，并在部分案例中验证引力理论。我们将借助UWL数据获取这些脉冲星的有效轨道覆盖范围与计时基线，并获得轨道及时域色散量（DM, Dispersion Measure）变化的重要约束条件，这将有助于明确伴星的物理性质。随后，我们将在关键轨道相位下使用米尔卡特（MeerKAT）望远镜的数据，以提升测量相对论参数的成功率。已测得的中子星（Neutron Star, NS）质量样本数量的增加，对中子星内部结构研究以及恒星与双星演化物理学均具有深远意义。