Parkes observations for project P1054 semester 2022APRS_16

With this proposal we ask time to continue our timing follow-up campaign of pulsars discovered with the MeerKAT telescope. Fourteen sources have been discovered in targeted observations of Fermi unidentified point sources, three in the Small Magellanic Cloud, 37 in Globular Clusters and 34 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.

本提案旨在申请观测时长，以延续针对MeerKAT射电望远镜（MeerKAT）发现的脉冲星开展的计时随访计划。我们通过费米未证认点源（Fermi Unidentified Point Sources）靶向观测发现14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37颗，在银道面巡天（Galactic Plane Survey）中发现34颗。本次新发现的脉冲星中，绝大多数为再循环脉冲星（recycled pulsars，包含至少1个双中子星系统（double neutron star system）与多颗“蜘蛛”双星系统（spider binaries）脉冲星），亦有部分为年轻脉冲星。

计时观测对于充分挖掘每一颗脉冲星发现的科研价值至关重要：其可精准测量脉冲星的自转、天体测量参数（astrometric parameter）与轨道参数（orbital parameter），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的特性提供强有力的研究工具。

帕克斯射电望远镜（Parkes）配备的UWL接收机（UWL receiver）是一款高灵敏度、多用途的仪器，能够帮助我们对TRAPUM巡天（TRAPUM）亮端发现的这批新脉冲星源开展成功的计时观测。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 pulsar）食变现象的精细化研究——这类脉冲星约占本项目拟开展随访的源总数的三分之一。