Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2022OCTS_07

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.

本观测提案申请观测时长，以持续开展针对MeerKAT望远镜（MeerKAT）发现脉冲星的计时随访项目。本次研究中，我们通过对费米未证认点源（Fermi unidentified point sources）的靶向观测发现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，另通过银道面（Galactic plane）巡天发现66颗。其中绝大多数新发现脉冲星为回收脉冲星（recycled pulsars，包含至少1个双中子星系统（double neutron star system）与多组"蜘蛛"双星系统（spider binaries））或年轻脉冲星。计时观测对于充分释放每一颗脉冲星发现的科学潜力至关重要，可实现自转、天体测量与轨道参数的精密测量，进而为我们深入理解极端环境下的物理规律以及中子星的整体种群分布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）是一台灵敏且多功能的仪器，可帮助我们成功对TRAPUM巡天（TRAPUM）中亮度较高的这批新发现源开展计时观测。该UWL接收机还具备独特优势，可对所谓"蜘蛛"脉冲星的食现象开展细致研究，此类源约占本项目拟开展随访的目标源总数的三分之一。