The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT XV: A comparison of the radio emission properties of slow and millisecond pulsars

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Main Authors: Karastergiou, A., Johnston, S., Posselt, B., Oswald, L. S., Kramer, M., Weltevrede, P.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Karastergiou, A.
Johnston, S.
Posselt, B.
Oswald, L. S.
Kramer, M.
Weltevrede, P.
author_facet Karastergiou, A.
Johnston, S.
Posselt, B.
Oswald, L. S.
Kramer, M.
Weltevrede, P.
contents We use data from the MeerTime project on the MeerKAT telescope to ask whether the radio emission properties of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and slowly rotating, younger pulsars (SPs) are similar or different. We show that the flux density spectra of both populations are similarly steep, and the widths of MSP pulsar profiles obey the same dependence on the rotational period as slow pulsars. We also show that the polarization of MSPs has similar properties to slow pulsars. The commonly used pseudo-luminosity of pulsars, defined as the product of the flux density and the distance squared, is not appropriate for drawing conclusions about the relative intrinsic radio luminosity of SPs and MSPs. We show that it is possible to scale the pseudo-luminosity to account for the pulse duty cycle and the solid angle of the radio beam, in such a way that MSPs and SPs do not show clear differences in intrinsic luminosity. The data, therefore, support common emission physics between the two populations in spite of orders of magnitude difference in their period derivatives and inferred, surface, dipole magnetic field strengths.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2407_06836
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT XV: A comparison of the radio emission properties of slow and millisecond pulsars
Karastergiou, A.
Johnston, S.
Posselt, B.
Oswald, L. S.
Kramer, M.
Weltevrede, P.
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
We use data from the MeerTime project on the MeerKAT telescope to ask whether the radio emission properties of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) and slowly rotating, younger pulsars (SPs) are similar or different. We show that the flux density spectra of both populations are similarly steep, and the widths of MSP pulsar profiles obey the same dependence on the rotational period as slow pulsars. We also show that the polarization of MSPs has similar properties to slow pulsars. The commonly used pseudo-luminosity of pulsars, defined as the product of the flux density and the distance squared, is not appropriate for drawing conclusions about the relative intrinsic radio luminosity of SPs and MSPs. We show that it is possible to scale the pseudo-luminosity to account for the pulse duty cycle and the solid angle of the radio beam, in such a way that MSPs and SPs do not show clear differences in intrinsic luminosity. The data, therefore, support common emission physics between the two populations in spite of orders of magnitude difference in their period derivatives and inferred, surface, dipole magnetic field strengths.
title The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT XV: A comparison of the radio emission properties of slow and millisecond pulsars
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2407.06836