分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-12-29
摘要: Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, frequently powering high-energy activity in X-rays. Pulsed radio emission following some X-ray outbursts have been detected, albeit its physical origin is unclear. It has long been speculated that the origin of magnetars' radio signals is different from those from canonical pulsars, although convincing evidence is still lacking. Five months after magnetar SGR 1935+2154's X-ray outburst and its associated Fast Radio Burst (FRB) 20200428, a radio pulsar phase was discovered. Here we report the discovery of X-ray spectral hardening associated with the emergence of periodic radio pulsations from SGR 1935+2154 and a detailed analysis of the properties of the radio pulses. The complex radio pulse morphology, which contains both narrow-band emission and frequency drifts, has not been seen before in other magnetars, but is similar to those of repeating FRBs - even though the luminosities are many orders of magnitude different. The observations suggest that radio emission originates from the outer magnetosphere of the magnetar, and the surface heating due to the bombardment of inward-going particles from the radio emission region is responsible for the observed X-ray spectral hardening.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-12-29
摘要: Globular clusters harbor numerous millisecond pulsars; however, the detection of long-period pulsars within these clusters has been notably scarce. The search for long-period pulsars encounters significant challenges due to pronounced red noise interference, necessitating the crucial step of red noise removal in the data preprocessing. In this study, we use running median filtering to mitigate red noise in multiple globular cluster datasets obtained through observations with the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). Additionally, we estimated the minimum detectable flux density of pulsars ($S_{ rm min}$) considering this processing step, resulting in a function depicting how $S_{ rm min}$ varies with different duty cycles and periods. Subsequently, a systematic search for long-period pulsars was conducted on the globular cluster datasets after red noise elimination. Ultimately, two isolated long-period pulsars were discovered in the M15 globular cluster, with periods of approximately 1.928451 seconds and 3.960716 seconds, both exhibiting remarkably low pulse duty cycles of around 1 %. Using archived data, we obtained timing solutions for these pulsars. Based on the timing results, their positions are found to be close to the center of the M15 cluster. On the $P- dot{P}$ diagram, they both lie below the spin-up line, suggesting that their recycling process was likely interrupted, leading them to become isolated pulsars. Moreover, in our current search, these very faint long-period pulsars are exclusively identified in M15, and one possible reason for this could be the relatively close proximity and extremely high stellar formation rate of M15. As observational data accumulate and search algorithms undergo iterative enhancements, the prospect of discovering additional long-period pulsars within globular clusters, such as M15, becomes increasingly promising.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: The nature of dark matter remains obscure in spite of decades of experimental efforts. The mass of dark matter candidates can span a wide range, and its coupling with the Standard Model sector remains uncertain. All these unknowns make the etection of dark matter extremely challenging. Ultralight dark matter, with $m \sim10^{-22}$ eV, is proposed to reconcile the disagreements between observations and predictions from simulations of small-scale structures in the cold dark matter paradigm, while remaining consistent with other observations. Because of its large de Broglie wavelength and large local occupation number within galaxies, ultralight dark matter behaves like a coherently oscillating background field with an oscillating frequency dependent on its mass. If the dark matter particle is a spin-1 dark photon, such as the $U(1)_B$ or $U(1)_{B-L}$ gauge boson, it can induce an external oscillating force and lead to displacements of test masses. Such an effect would be observable in the form of periodic variations in the arrival times of radio pulses from highly stable millisecond pulsars. In this study, we search for evidence of ultralight dark photon dark matter (DPDM) using 14-year high-precision observations of 26 pulsars collected with the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. While no statistically significant signal is found, we place constraints on coupling constants for the $U(1)_B$ and $U(1)_{B-L}$ DPDM. Compared with other experiments, the limits on the dimensionless coupling constant $\epsilon$ achieved in our study are improved by up to two orders of magnitude when the dark photon mass is smaller than $3\times10^{-22}$~eV ($10^{-22}$~eV) for the $U(1)_{B}$ ($U(1)_{B-L}$) scenario.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: A cosmological first-order phase transition is expected to produce a stochastic gravitational wave background. If the phase transition temperature is on the MeV scale, the power spectrum of the induced stochastic gravitational waves peaks around nanohertz frequencies, and can thus be probed with high-precision pulsar timing observations. We search for such a stochastic gravitational wave background with the latest data set of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. We find no evidence for a Hellings-Downs spatial correlation as expected for a stochastic gravitational wave background. Therefore, we present constraints on first-order phase transition model parameters. Our analysis shows that pulsar timing is particularly sensitive to the low-temperature ($T \sim 1 - 100$ MeV) phase transition with a duration $(\beta/H_*)^{-1}\sim 10^{-2}-10^{-1}$ and therefore can be used to constrain the dark and QCD phase transitions.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: High sensitivity interstellar scintillation and polarization observations of PSR~B0656+14 made at three epochs over a year using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) show that the scattering is dominated by two different compact regions. We identify the one nearer to the pulsar with the shell of the Monogem Ring, thereby confirming the association. The other is probably associated with the Local Bubble. We find that the observed position angles of the pulsar spin axis and the space velocity are significantly different, with a separation of $19\fdg3\pm$0\fdg8, inconsistent with a previously published near-perfect alignment of $1\degr\pm 2\degr$. The two independent scattering regions are clearly defined in the secondary spectra which show two strong forward parabolic arcs. The arc curvatures imply that the scattering screens corresponding to the outer and inner arcs are located approximately 28~pc from PSR B0656+14 and 185~pc from the Earth, respectively. Comparison of the observed Doppler profiles with electromagnetic simulations shows that both scattering regions are mildly anisotropic. For the outer arc, we estimate the anisotropy $A_R$ to be approximately 1.3, with the scattering irregularities aligned parallel to the pulsar velocity. For the outer arc, we compare the observed delay profiles with delay profiles computed from a theoretical strong-scattering model. Our results suggest that the spatial spectrum of the scattering irregularities in the Monogem Ring is flatter than Kolmogorov, but further observations are required to confirm this.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Composed of ultralight bosons, fuzzy dark matter provides an intriguing solution to challenges that the standard cold dark matter model encounters on sub-galactic scales. The ultralight dark matter with mass $m\sim10^{-23} \rm{eV}$ will induce a periodic oscillation in gravitational potentials with a frequency in the nanohertz band, leading to observable effects in the arrival times of radio pulses from pulsars. Unlike scalar dark matter, pulsar timing signals induced by the vector dark matter are dependent on the oscillation direction of the vector fields. In this work, we search for ultralight vector dark matter in the mass range of $[2\times 10^{-24}, 2\times 10^{-22}]{\rm{eV}}$ through its gravitational effect in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) second data release. Since no statistically significant detection is made, we place $95\%$ upper limits on the local dark matter density as $\rho_{\rm{\tiny{VF}}} \lesssim 5{\rm{GeV/cm^{3}}}$ for $m\lesssim 10^{-23}{\rm{eV}}$. As no preferred direction is found for the vector dark matter, these constraints are comparable to those given by the scalar dark matter search with an earlier 12-year data set of PPTA.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: High sensitivity interstellar scintillation and polarization observations of PSR~B0656+14 made at three epochs over a year using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) show that the scattering is dominated by two different compact regions. We identify the one nearer to the pulsar with the shell of the Monogem Ring, thereby confirming the association. The other is probably associated with the Local Bubble. We find that the observed position angles of the pulsar spin axis and the space velocity are significantly different, with a separation of $19\fdg3\pm$0\fdg8, inconsistent with a previously published near-perfect alignment of $1\degr\pm 2\degr$. The two independent scattering regions are clearly defined in the secondary spectra which show two strong forward parabolic arcs. The arc curvatures imply that the scattering screens corresponding to the outer and inner arcs are located approximately 28~pc from PSR B0656+14 and 185~pc from the Earth, respectively. Comparison of the observed Doppler profiles with electromagnetic simulations shows that both scattering regions are mildly anisotropic. For the outer arc, we estimate the anisotropy $A_R$ to be approximately 1.3, with the scattering irregularities aligned parallel to the pulsar velocity. For the outer arc, we compare the observed delay profiles with delay profiles computed from a theoretical strong-scattering model. Our results suggest that the spatial spectrum of the scattering irregularities in the Monogem Ring is flatter than Kolmogorov, but further observations are required to confirm this.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: Composed of ultralight bosons, fuzzy dark matter provides an intriguing solution to challenges that the standard cold dark matter model encounters on sub-galactic scales. The ultralight dark matter with mass $m\sim10^{-23} \rm{eV}$ will induce a periodic oscillation in gravitational potentials with a frequency in the nanohertz band, leading to observable effects in the arrival times of radio pulses from pulsars. Unlike scalar dark matter, pulsar timing signals induced by the vector dark matter are dependent on the oscillation direction of the vector fields. In this work, we search for ultralight vector dark matter in the mass range of $[2\times 10^{-24}, 2\times 10^{-22}]{\rm{eV}}$ through its gravitational effect in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (PPTA) second data release. Since no statistically significant detection is made, we place $95\%$ upper limits on the local dark matter density as $\rho_{\rm{\tiny{VF}}} \lesssim 5{\rm{GeV/cm^{3}}}$ for $m\lesssim 10^{-23}{\rm{eV}}$. As no preferred direction is found for the vector dark matter, these constraints are comparable to those given by the scalar dark matter search with an earlier 12-year data set of PPTA.
分类: 天文学 >> 天文学 提交时间: 2023-02-19
摘要: A cosmological first-order phase transition is expected to produce a stochastic gravitational wave background. If the phase transition temperature is on the MeV scale, the power spectrum of the induced stochastic gravitational waves peaks around nanohertz frequencies, and can thus be probed with high-precision pulsar timing observations. We search for such a stochastic gravitational wave background with the latest data set of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array. We find no evidence for a Hellings-Downs spatial correlation as expected for a stochastic gravitational wave background. Therefore, we present constraints on first-order phase transition model parameters. Our analysis shows that pulsar timing is particularly sensitive to the low-temperature ($T \sim 1 - 100$ MeV) phase transition with a duration $(\beta/H_*)^{-1}\sim 10^{-2}-10^{-1}$ and therefore can be used to constrain the dark and QCD phase transitions.