The MeerKAT telescope as a pulsar facility: System verification and early science results from MeerTime
Date Issued
2020
Author(s)
Bailes, M.
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Jameson, A.
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Barr, E. D.
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Bhat, N. D. R.
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Bondonneau, L.
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Buchner, S. J.
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Camilo, F.
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Champion, D. J.
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Cognard, I.
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Demorest, P. B.
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Freire, P. C. C.
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Gautam, T.
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Geyer, M.
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Griessmeier, J. -M.
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Guillemot, L.
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Hu, H.
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Jankowski, F.
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Johnston, S.
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Karastergiou, A.
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Karuppusamy, R.
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Kaur, D.
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Keith, M. J.
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Kramer, M.
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van Leeuwen, J.
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Lower, M. E.
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Maan, Y.
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McLaughlin, M. A.
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Meyers, B. W.
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Osłowski, S.
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Oswald, L. S.
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Parthasarathy, A.
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Pennucci, T.
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Posselt, B.
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Ransom, S. M.
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Reardon, D. J.
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Schollar, C. T. G.
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Serylak, M.
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Shaifullah, G.
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Shamohammadi, M.
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Shannon, R. M.
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Sobey, C.
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Song, X.
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Spiewak, R.
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Stairs, I. H.
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Stappers, B. W.
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van Straten, W.
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Szary, A.
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Theureau, G.
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Venkatraman Krishnan, V.
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Weltevrede, P.
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Wex, N.
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Abbott, T. D.
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Adams, G. B.
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Burger, J. P.
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Gamatham, R. R. G.
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Gouws, M.
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Horn, D. M.
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Hugo, B.
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Joubert, A. F.
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Manley, J. R.
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McAlpine, K.
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Passmoor, S. S.
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Peens-Hough, A.
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Ramudzuli, Z. R.
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Rust, A.
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Salie, S.
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Schwardt, L. C.
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Siebrits, R.
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Van Tonder, G.
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Van Tonder, V.
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Welz, M. G.
Abstract
We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain ( ${∼}2.8 \mbox{K Jy}^{-1}$ ) low-system temperature ( ${∼}18 \mbox{K at }20 \mbox{cm}$ ) radio array that currently operates at 580-1 670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar $\mbox{J}0737{-}3039\mbox{A}$ , pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a single 2.5-h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR $\mbox{J}0540{-}6919$ , and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633-2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing errors of less than 5 ns using their novel precise time system. Our timing of two bright MSPs confirm that MeerKAT delivers exceptional timing. PSR $\mbox{J}2241{-}5236$ exhibits a jitter limit of $<4 \mbox{ns h}^{-1}$ whilst timing of PSR $\mbox{J}1909{-}3744$ over almost 11 months yields an rms residual of 66 ns with only 4 min integrations. Our results confirm that the MeerKAT is an exceptional pulsar telescope. The array can be split into four separate sub-arrays to time over 1 000 pulsars per day and the future deployment of S-band (1 750-3 500 MHz) receivers will further enhance its capabilities.
Volume
37
Start page
e028
Issn Identifier
1448-6083
Ads BibCode
2020PASA...37...28B
Rights
restricted
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