Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2021OCTS_05

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，以持续开展对MeerKAT望远镜所发现脉冲星的计时随访项目。本次通过四类观测共发现脉冲星：9个源自费米未证认点源（Fermi unidentified point sources）的靶向观测，3个发现于小麦哲伦星系（Small Magellanic Cloud），34个发现于球状星团（Globular Clusters），另有6个来自银道面（Galactic plane）巡天。排除球状星团源（因亮度过低，无法在本提案框架内开展随访）后，剩余的新发现脉冲星中至少有12颗为再循环脉冲星，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。计时观测对于充分挖掘每一颗脉冲星发现的科研潜力具有核心作用，可实现对其自转参数、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手段。帕克斯望远镜（Parkes telescope）搭载的UWL接收机（UWL receiver）是一台高灵敏度、多功能的观测设备，能够助力我们成功对TRAPUM巡天发现的亮端新源开展计时观测。此外，UWL接收机还具备独特优势，可用于对所谓的"蜘蛛"脉冲星开展掩星现象的精细化研究，这类源约占本项目拟随访源总数的三分之一。