Wide-band profile domain pulsar timing analysis
Creators
- Lentati, L.1
- Kerr, M.2
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Dai, S.2
- Hobson, M. P.1
- Shannon, R. M.2, 3
- Hobbs, G.2
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Bailes, M.4
- Bhat, N. D. Ramesh3
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Burke-Spolaor, S.5
- Coles, W.6
- Dempsey, J.
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Lasky, P. D.7
- Levin, Y.7
- Manchester, R. N.2
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Osłowski, S.4, 8, 9
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Ravi, V.10
- Reardon, D. J.7
- Rosado, P. A.4
- Spiewak, R.4, 11
- van Straten, W.4
- Toomey, L.2
- Wang, J.12
- Wen, L.13
- You, X.14
- Zhu, X.13
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1.
University of Cambridge
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2.
Australia Telescope National Facility
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3.
International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research
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4.
Swinburne University of Technology
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5.
National Radio Astronomy Observatory
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6.
University of California, San Diego
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7.
Monash University
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8.
Bielefeld University
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9.
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
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10.
California Institute of Technology
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11.
University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
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12.
Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory
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13.
University of Western Australia
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14.
Southwest University
Abstract
We extend profile domain pulsar timing to incorporate wide-band effects such as frequency-dependent profile evolution and broad-band shape variation in the pulse profile. We also incorporate models for temporal variations in both pulse width and in the separation in phase of the main pulse and interpulse. We perform the analysis with both nested sampling and Hamiltonian Monte Carlo methods. In the latter case, we introduce a new parametrization of the posterior that is extremely efficient in the low signal-to-noise regime and can be readily applied to a wide range of scientific problems. We apply this methodology to a series of simulations, and to between seven and nine years of observations for PSRs J1713+0747, J1744−1134 and J1909−3744 with frequency coverage that spans 700–3600 Mhz. We use a smooth model for profile evolution across the full frequency range, and compare smooth and piecewise models for the temporal variations in dispersion measure (DM). We find that the profile domain framework consistently results in improved timing precision compared to the standard analysis paradigm by as much as 40 per cent for timing parameters. Incorporating smoothness in the DM variations into the model further improves timing precision by as much as 30 per cent. For PSR J1713+0747, we also detect pulse shape variation uncorrelated between epochs, which we attribute to variation intrinsic to the pulsar at a level consistent with previously published analyses. Not accounting for this shape variation biases the measured arrival times at the level of ∼30 ns, the same order of magnitude as the expected shift due to gravitational waves in the pulsar timing band.
Additional Information
© 2016 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. Accepted 2016 December 22. Received 2016 December 22; in original form 2016 May 23. The Parkes radio telescope is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility that is funded by the Commonwealth of Australia for operation as a National Facility managed by Commonwealth Science and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). We thank all of the observers, engineers and Parkes observatory staff members who have assisted with the observations reported in this paper. LL was supported by a Junior Research Fellowship at Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University.Attached Files
Published - stw3359.pdf
Files
stw3359.pdf
Additional details
Identifiers
- Eprint ID
- 77207
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20170505-082331306
Funding
- Trinity Hall College, Cambridge University
Dates
- Created
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2017-05-05Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-15Created from EPrint's last_modified field