Measuring pulse times of arrival from broad-band pulsar observations

Liu, K; Desvignes, G.; Cognard, I.; Stappers, B. W.; Verbiest, J. P. W.; Lee, K.J.; Champion, D. J.; Krämer, M.; Freire, P. C. C.; Karuppusamy, R.

doi:10.1093/mnras/stu1420

Cited by 78 publications

(72 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…This is a reasonable assumption given recent work on wide-band template matching (Pennucci et al 2014;Liu et al 2014). In fact, by using these new wide-band TOA determination algorithms it is possible to simultaneously account for profile evolution, DM variations, scattering, and scintillation while summarising wide-band observations into a single TOA.…”

Section: Pta Monitoring Of Msps At High Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Prospects for high-precision pulsar timing with the new Effelsberg PSRIX backend

Lazarus¹,

Karuppusamy²,

Graikou³

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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138

112

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The PSRIX backend is the primary pulsar timing instrument of the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope since early 2011. This new ROACH-based system enables bandwidths up to 500 MHz to be recorded, significantly more than what was possible with its predecessor, the Effelsberg-Berkeley Pulsar Processor (EBPP). We review the first four years of PSRIX timing data for 33 pulsars collected as part of the monthly European Pulsar Timing Array (EPTA) observations. We describe the automated data analysis pipeline, CoastGuard, that we developed to reduce these observations. We also introduce TOASTER, the EPTA timing database used to store timing results, processing information and observation metadata. Using these new tools, we measure the phase-averaged flux densities at 1.4 GHz of all 33 pulsars. For 7 of these pulsars, our flux density measurements are the first values ever reported. For the other 26 pulsars, we compare our flux density measurements with previously published values. By comparing PSRIX data with EBPP data, we find an improvement of ∼2-5 times in signal-to-noise ratio achievable, which translates to an increase of ∼2-5 times in pulse time-of-arrival (TOA) precision. We show that such an improvement in TOA precision will improve the sensitivity to the stochastic gravitational wave background. Finally, we showcase the flexibility of the new PSRIX backend by observing several millisecond-period pulsars (MSPs) at 5 and 9 GHz. Motivated by our detections, we discuss the potential for complementing existing pulsar timing array data sets with MSP monitoring campaigns at these frequencies.

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Section: Pta Monitoring Of Msps At High Frequenciesmentioning

confidence: 95%

Prospects for high-precision pulsar timing with the new Effelsberg PSRIX backend

Lazarus¹,

Karuppusamy²,

Graikou³

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

Self Cite

138

112

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“…Each telescope also has a history of regularly improving instrumentation, and thus TOAs obtained at later times are often of a much higher quality than those from earlier times. This trend is helpful for timing precision, but a wider bandwidth may require a more complicated frequency-dependent pulse profile model, due to frequency-dependent pulse shapes (Liu et al 2014;Pennucci et al 2014). Differences among PTAs include the number of standard observing frequencies and the methods for modeling DM variations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A 24 Hr Global Campaign to Assess Precision Timing of the Millisecond Pulsar J1713+0747

Dolch

Lam

Cordes

et al. 2014

ApJ

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General rightsIt is not permitted to download or to forward/distribute the text or part of it without the consent of the author(s) and/or copyright holder(s), other than for strictly personal, individual use, unless the work is under an open content license (like Creative Commons). Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. Download date: 08 May 2018The Astrophysical Journal, 794:21 (14pp), 2014 October 10 doi:10.1088/0004-637X/794/1/21 C 2014. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A. A 24 HR GLOBAL CAMPAIGN TO ASSESS PRECISION TIMING OF THE MILLISECOND PULSAR J1713+0747 ABSTRACTThe radio millisecond pulsar J1713+0747 is regarded as one of the highest-precision clocks in the sky and is regularly timed for the purpose of detecting gravitational waves. The International Pulsar Timing Array Collaboration undertook a 24 hr global observation of PSR J1713+0747 in an effort to better quantify sources of timing noise in this pulsar, particularly on intermediate (1-24 hr) timescales. We observed the pulsar continuously over 24 hr with the Arecibo, Effelsberg, GMRT, Green Bank, LOFAR, Lovell, Nançay, Parkes, and WSRT radio telescopes. The combined pulse times-of-arrival presented here provide an estimate of what sources of timing noise, excluding DM variations, would be present as compared to an idealized √ N improvement in timing precision, where N is the number of pulses analyzed. In the case of this particular pulsar, we find that intrinsic pulse phase jitter dominates arrival time precision when the signal-to-noise ratio of single pulses exceeds unity, as measured using the eight telescopes that observed at L band/1.4 GHz. We present first results of specific phenomena probed on the unusually long timescale (for a single continuous observing session) of tens of hours, in particular interstellar scintillation, and discuss the degree to which scintillation and profile evolution affect precision timing. This paper presents the data set as a basis for future, deeper studies.

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“…In Pennucci, Demorest & Ransom (2014) and Liu et al (2014) the DM is estimated in this way in order to obtain ToA estimates that are not biased by dedispersing with an incorrect DM. The degree of improvement in modeling the DM coherently across the entire data set will naturally depend upon the bandwidth and the S/N of that data set.…”

Section: Data Setmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In both Pennucci, Demorest & Ransom (2014) and Liu et al (2014) twodimensional extensions to the standard ToA forming process are introduced that fit for the DM at each observational epoch when estimating the ToA, and include profile evolution in the template. Fitting for both the ToA and the DM in this way, however, introduces a significant number of potentially unneeded free parameters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wide-band profile domain pulsar timing analysis

Lentati

Kerr

Dai

et al. 2016

Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc.

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We extend profile domain pulsar timing to incorporate wide-band effects such as frequencydependent profile evolution and broadband 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 parameterisation 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 yr 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 DM. We find the profile domain framework consistently results in improved timing precision compared to the standard analysis paradigm by as much as 40% for timing parameters. Incorporating smoothness in the DM variations into the model further improves timing precision by as much as 30%. 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.

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Measuring pulse times of arrival from broad-band pulsar observations

Cited by 78 publications

References 25 publications

Prospects for high-precision pulsar timing with the new Effelsberg PSRIX backend

Prospects for high-precision pulsar timing with the new Effelsberg PSRIX backend

A 24 Hr Global Campaign to Assess Precision Timing of the Millisecond Pulsar J1713+0747

Wide-band profile domain pulsar timing analysis

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