Origin of pulsar timing noise: possible correlations between pulsar spin-down rates and magnetospheric processes

[摘要] English: Pulsars are extremely accurate clocks that allow us to explore certain unansweredquestions in theelds of exotic compact forms of matter and gravitational wave as-trophysics. Pulsars that form part of a timing array can be used to detect stochasticgravitational wave (GWs) backgrounds produced by merging super-massive blackholes by searching for systematic correlated delays in the arrival times of the pulsesover decades. However, these GW backgrounds produce a small amplitude variationin the timing residuals of a pulsar over decades. Similar to the residual signatureproduced by GW, timing noise also exhibits a quasi-periodic timing residual signa-ture due to some unidenti ed variations in the pulsar's spin parameters. This studyfocused on the analysis of the timing noise phenomena observed in PSR J1326-5859.Several decades of timing and polarization data were analyzed and correlated inan attempt to model the observed timing noise signature. We propose that PSRJ1326-5859 is coupled to a fossil disk that torques the star in a quasi stable mannerand produces the observed spin-down evolution and polarization state changes.

[发布机构] University of the Free State