Searching for pulsars associated with polarised point sources using LOFAR: Initial discoveries from the TULIPP project
Journal
Date Issued
2022
Author(s)
Sobey, C.
•
Bassa, C. G.
•
Callingham, J. R.
•
Tan, C. M.
•
Hessels, J. W. T.
•
Kondratiev, V. I.
•
Stappers, B. W.
•
•
Heald, G.
•
Shimwell, T.
•
Breton, R. P.
•
Kirwan, M.
•
Vedantham, H. K.
•
•
Grießmeier, J. -M.
•
Haverkorn, M.
•
Karastergiou, A.
Abstract
Discovering radio pulsars, particularly millisecond pulsars (MSPs), is
important for a range of astrophysical applications, such as testing theories
of gravity or probing the magneto-ionic interstellar medium. We aim to discover
pulsars that may have been missed in previous pulsar searches by leveraging
known pulsar observables (primarily polarisation) in the sensitive,
low-frequency radio images from the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) Two-metre Sky
Survey (LoTSS), and have commenced the Targeted search, using LoTSS images, for
polarised pulsars (TULIPP) survey. For this survey, we identified linearly and
circularly polarised point sources with flux densities brighter than 2 mJy in
LoTSS images at a centre frequency of 144 MHz with a 48 MHz bandwidth. Over 40
known pulsars, half of which are MSPs, were detected as polarised sources in
the LoTSS images and excluded from the survey. We have obtained beam-formed
LOFAR observations of 30 candidates, which were searched for pulsations using
coherent de-dispersion. Here, we present the results of the first year of the
TULIPP survey. We discovered two pulsars, PSRs J1049+5822 and J1602+3901, with
rotational periods of P=0.73 s and 3.7 ms, respectively. We also detected a
further five known pulsars (two slowly-rotating pulsars and three MSPs) for
which accurate sky positions were not available to allow a unique cross-match
with LoTSS sources. This targeted survey presents a relatively efficient method
by which pulsars, particularly MSPs, may be discovered using the flexible
observing modes of sensitive radio telescopes such as the Square Kilometre
Array and its pathfinders/precursors, particularly since wide-area all-sky
surveys using coherent de-dispersion are currently computationally infeasible.
Volume
661
Start page
A87
Issn Identifier
0004-6361
Ads BibCode
{2022A&A...661A..87S
Rights
open.access
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