Advanced sky survey using Pune-based radio telescope helps detect two hidden pulsars

Pulsars are small but compact, highly magnetised spinning neutron stars containing more mass than the Sun

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(An artist impression of the rotating magnetised neutron star emitting radio signals / NCRA)

With its increased sensitivity and ability to peer deeper into the skies, the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) has facilitated the discovery of two new pulsars having narrow widths whose presence was earlier missed. These were among the 31 neutron stars, the highest to be discovered, with respect to per sky area in the southern sky.

GMRT is a Pune-based radio telescope operating in low-frequency bandwidth and has been used to study the Universe and its evolution since 2000. Its upgrade, completed in 2019, has paved the way for several new discoveries.

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Scientists at the TIFR – National Centre for Radio Astrophysics (NCRA) are in the seventh year of conducting a sky survey, called the GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky (GHRSS), during which the presence of the new long-period-pulsars was confirmed.

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Pulsars are small but compact, highly magnetised spinning neutron stars containing more mass than the Sun. They are the remnants of a supernova, or the violent explosion marking the death of a massive star. This remnant neutron star, or simply the pulsar, usually sits at the centre of the supernova explosion. It continues to rapidly rotate and at the same time, radiate beams at regular intervals. Over time, this rate of rotation and emission slows down and the pulsar can no longer radiate and it enters a phase called pulsar graveyard.

The NCRA scientists, in collaboration with experts from the University of Manchester, the National Naval Laboratory and West Virginia University in the US, recently challenged the efficiency of the conventional sky scanning and present algorithms used during sky surveys. The existing pulsar population from GHRSS and other ongoing surveys with telescopes around the world, they said, lacked the long-period pulsar data. Due to this underlying search limitation of the algorithm was that it was looking for signals from the pulsar spinning-frequency domain.

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Aimed to improve this algorithm, the NCRA-led group of scientists applied a pulsar signal search mechanism in the time domain at periodic intervals instead. This new algorithm deployed during the sky survey for tracking pulsar signals was far more efficient than the conventional search, particularly with regard to long-period pulsars, experts described in their recent publication in the Astrophysical Journal. The group mentioned the discovery of a long-period pulsar named PSR J1517-31b.

The new algorithm, scientists said, will help newer discoveries of long-period pulsars, especially those located in the stellar graveyard in future.

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