A detailed study of giant pulses from PSR B1937+21 using the Large European Array for Pulsars

Journal
Date Issued
2019
Author(s)
McKee, J. W.
•
Stappers, B. W.
•
Bassa, C. G.
•
Chen, S.
•
Cognard, I.
•
Gaikwad, M.
•
Janssen, G. H.
•
Karuppusamy, R.
•
Kramer, M.
•
Lee, K. J.
•
Liu, K.
•
•
Sanidas, S. A.
•
Smits, R.
•
Wang, L.
•
Zhu, W. W.
DOI
Abstract
We have studied 4265 giant pulses (GPs) from the millisecond pulsar B1937+21; the largest-ever sample gathered for this pulsar, in observations made with the Large European Array for Pulsars. The pulse energy distribution of GPs associated with the interpulse are well-described by a power law, with index α = -3.99 ± 0.04, while those associated with the main pulse are best-described by a broken power law, with the break occurring at ∼7 Jy s with power law indices αlow = -3.48 ± 0.04 and αhigh = -2.10 ± 0.09. The modulation indices of the GP emission are measured, which are found to vary by ∼0.5 at pulse phases close to the centre of the GP phase distributions. We find the frequency-resolved structure of GPs to vary significantly, and in a manner that cannot be attributed to the interstellar medium influence on the observed pulses. We examine the distribution of polarisation fractions of the GPs and find no correlation between GP emission phase and fractional polarisation. We use the GPs to time PSR B1937+21 and although the achievable time of arrival precision of the GPs is approximately a factor of two greater than that of the average pulse profile, there is a negligible difference in the precision of the overall timing solution when using the GPs.
Volume
483
Issue
4
Start page
4784
Uri
Url
Issn Identifier
0035-8711
Ads BibCode
2019MNRAS.483.4784M
Rights
open.access
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