Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2021OCTS_01

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.

本申请旨在获批观测时长，以持续开展对MeerKAT望远镜发现的脉冲星（pulsar）的计时后续观测项目。本次通过四类观测共发现脉冲星：费米（Fermi）未证认点源靶向观测中发现9个，小麦哲伦星系（Small Magellanic Cloud）中发现3个，球状星团（Globular Clusters）中发现34个，银道面巡天中发现6个。排除因亮度不足无法在本申请框架内开展后续观测的球状星团源后，至少12个新发现源为再循环脉冲星（recycled pulsar），其中1颗可能拥有中子星（neutron star）伴星，另有2颗的自转周期约为70毫秒，属于潜在的轻度再循环脉冲星或年轻脉冲星。计时观测对于充分挖掘每一次脉冲星发现的科学价值至关重要：通过计时观测可精准测量自转、天体测量与轨道参数，进而为我们深入理解极端环境下的物理规律以及整体中子星族群特性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度、多用途的仪器，能够成功对这些新发现源开展计时观测——这些源均属于TRAPUM巡天（TRAPUM）发现的亮源样本。此外，UWL接收机还具备独特优势，可对所谓的"蜘蛛脉冲星（spider pulsar）"开展食现象的精细化研究，而这类源约占本项目计划开展后续观测的源总数的三分之一。