Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2021OCTS_15

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.

本申请旨在申请观测时间，以延续针对MeerKAT望远镜发现的脉冲星（pulsars）开展的计时随访项目。我们通过对费米未证认点源（Fermi unidentified point sources）的靶向观测发现了9颗脉冲星，在小麦哲伦星系（Small Magellanic Cloud）中发现3颗，在球状星团（Globular Clusters）中发现34颗，在银道面（Galactic plane）巡天中发现6颗。排除球状星团源（因亮度不足，无法在本申请框架内开展随访），本次发现的脉冲星中至少有12颗为再循环脉冲星（recycled pulsars），其中1颗可能拥有中子星伴星（neutron star companion）；另有2颗的自转周期（spin periods）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颗脉冲星发现的科学价值至关重要：通过计时观测可精确测量自转、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。帕克斯望远镜（Parkes telescope）的UWL接收机（UWL receiver）是一款高灵敏度、多用途的观测设备，能够帮助我们顺利对这批新发现的脉冲星开展计时观测——这些源属于TRAPUM巡天（TRAPUM）中亮度较高的发现样本。此外，UWL接收机还具备独特优势，可用于开展针对所谓"蜘蛛脉冲星（spider pulsars）"食现象的细致研究；这类脉冲星约占本项目拟开展随访的源总数的三分之一。