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Swift J1818.0−1607 is a radio-emitting magnetar that was discovered in X-ray outburst in March 2020. Starting four days after this outburst, we began a nearly five month multi-frequency observing campaign at 2.2, 8.4, and 32 GHz using telescopes in the NASA Deep Space Network. Using a dual-frequency observing mode, we were able to observe Swift J1818.0−1607 simultaneously at either 2.2 and 8.4 GHz or 8.4 and 32 GHz. Over the course of the campaign, we find that the flux density increases substantially and the spectrum changes from uncharacteristically steep (α < −2.2) to the essentially flat (α ≈ 0) spectrum typical of radio-emitting magnetars. In addition to the expected profile evolution on timescales of days to months, we find that Swift J1818.0−1607 also exhibits mode switching where the pulse profile changes between two distinct shapes on timescales of seconds to minutes. For two of the radio observations, we also had accompanying X-ray observations using the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope that occurred on the same day. We find a near anti-alignment (0.40 phase cycles) between the peaks of the radio and X-ray pulse profiles, which is most likely explained by an intrinsic misalignment between the X-ray and radio emitting regions.

Magnetars are young, magnetically powered neutron stars that possess the strongest magnetic fields in the Universe. Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely intense millisecond-long radio pulses of primarily extragalactic origin, and a leading attribution for their genesis focuses on magnetars. A hallmark signature of magnetars is their emission of bright, hard X-ray bursts of sub-second duration. On 27 April 2020, the Galactic magnetar SGR J1935+2154 emitted hundreds of X-ray bursts within a few hours. One of these temporally coincided with an FRB, the first known detection of an FRB from the Milky Way. Here, we present spectral and temporal analyses of 24 X-ray bursts emitted 13 hours prior to the FRB and seen simultaneously with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) mission of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and with the Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor (GBM) mission in their combined energy range of 0.2 keV to 30 MeV. These broadband spectra permit direct comparison with the spectrum of the FRB-associated X-ray burst (FRB-X). We demonstrate that all 24 NICER and GBM bursts are very similar temporally to the FRB-X, but strikingly different spectrally. The singularity of the FRB-X burst is perhaps indicative of an uncommon locale for its origin. We suggest that this event originated in quasi-polar open or closed magnetic field lines that extend to high altitudes. Twenty-four X-ray bursts from a Galactic magnetar simultaneously observed with NICER and Fermi permit a direct comparison to a later X-ray burst that was coincident with a fast radio burst (FRB). The FRB-related burst is spectrally distinct, pointing to an unusual point of emission.

Over a dozen millisecond pulsars are ablating low-mass companions in close binary systems. In the original "black widow", the 8-hour orbital period eclipsing pulsar PSR J1959+2048 (PSR B1957+20), high energy emission originating from the pulsar is irradiating and may eventually destroy a low-mass companion. These systems are not only physical laboratories that reveal the dramatic result of exposing a close companion star to the relativistic energy output of a pulsar, but are also believed to harbour some of the most massive neutron stars, allowing for robust tests of the neutron star equation of state. Here, we report observations of ZTF J1406+1222, a wide hierarchical triple hosting a 62-minute orbital period black widow candidate whose optical flux varies by a factor of more than 10. ZTF J1406+1222 pushes the boundaries of evolutionary models, falling below the 80 minute minimum orbital period of hydrogen-rich systems. The wide tertiary companion is a rare low metallicity cool subdwarf star, and the system has a Galactic halo orbit consistent with passing near the Galactic center, making it a probe of formation channels, neutron star kick physics, and binary evolution., 63 pages, 15 figures, 2 tables, published in Nature on May 4, 2022

This paper investigates the performance of pulsar-based navigation in deep space mission applications. The noise properties of X-ray based and radio-baspulsar measurements are examined and compared. A closed form parametric covariance analysis tool was developed in this study. It provides a rough estimate of the navigation performance associated with a deep space cruise that makes use of ion thrusters and sequential pulsar observations. In addition, the flight trajectory of the Dawn spacecraft was used to form a hypothetical deep space mission scenario that utilizes pulsars as navigation beacons. This simulated scenario accounts for clock uncertainty, pulsar timing noise, maneuver execution errors, sequential observation and interruptions between pulsar observations. A particle filter was implemented to reduce the large initial position uncertainty by resolving the number of pulsar wavelengths between the spacecraft and the Solar System Barycenter. The resulting position and velocity uncertainties from the particle filter can be used to initialize an Extended Kalman Filter, which estimates the spacecraft position and velocity for steady state operations.

This paper discusses the observability analysis, the estimation algorithm, the numerical simulation, and the experimental verification of a pulsar-based positioning system. This positioning system ...

This paper discusses the use of a pulsar signal in clock calibration. The analysis method is presented from the perspective of filtering theory, where Hadamard variance is used to analyze the frequency stability of both the stand-alone and the pulsar-aided clock systems. The aided clock is constructed using a steady state Kalman filter and accounts for the fractional power spectral density of the pulsar timing noise. The results of this simplified analysis indicate that the frequency stability of the aided clock has noticeable improvement at large averaging time due to the suppression of the random walk frequency noise in the stand-alone clock.

We present the detection of a bright radio burst at radio frequencies between 2.2--2.3 GHz with the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) 70 m dish (DSS-63) in Madrid, Spain from FRB~20200120E. This repeating fast radio burst (FRB) was recently discovered by the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment Fast Radio Burst (CHIME/FRB) instrument and reported to be associated with the M81 spiral galaxy at a distance of 3.6 Mpc. The high time resolution capabilities of the recording system used in this observation, together with the small amount of scattering and intrinsic brightness of the burst, allow us to explore the burst structure in unprecedented detail. We find that the burst has a duration of roughly 30 $\mu$s and is comprised of several narrow components with typical separations of 2--3 $\mu$s. The narrowest component has a width of $\lesssim$ 100 ns, which corresponds to a light travel time size as small as 30 m, the smallest associated with an FRB to date. The peak flux density of the narrowest burst component is 270 Jy. We estimate the total spectral luminosity of the narrowest component of the burst to be 4 $\times$ 10$^{\text{30}}$ erg s$^{\text{-1}}$ Hz$^{\text{-1}}$, which is a factor of $\sim$500 above the luminosities of the so-called "nanoshots" associated with giant pulses from the Crab pulsar. This spectral luminosity is also higher than that of the radio bursts detected from the Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 during its outburst in April 2020, but it falls on the low-end of the currently measured luminosity distribution of extragalatic FRBs. These results provide further support for the presence of a continuum of FRB burst luminosities., Comment: Accepted

Giant radio pulses (GRPs) are sporadic bursts emitted by some pulsars, lasting a few microseconds. GRPs are hundreds to thousands of times brighter than regular pulses from these sources. The only GRP-associated emission outside radio wavelengths is from the Crab Pulsar, where optical emission is enhanced by a few percent during GRPs. We observed the Crab Pulsar simultaneously at X-ray and radio wavelengths, finding enhancement of the X-ray emission by $3.8\pm0.7\%$ (a 5.4$\sigma$ detection) coinciding with GRPs. This implies that the total emitted energy from GRPs is tens to hundreds of times higher than previously known. We discuss the implications for the pulsar emission mechanism and extragalactic fast radio bursts., Comment: 63 pages, 23 figures, 7 Tables. Published in Science

We report on NICER observations of the Magnetar SGR~1935+2154, covering its 2020 burst storm and long-term persistent emission evolution up to $\sim90$ days post outburst. During the first 1120~seconds taken on April 28 00:40:58 UTC we detect over 217 bursts, corresponding to a burst rate of $>0.2$ bursts s$^{-1}$. Three hours later the rate is at 0.008 bursts s$^{-1}$, remaining at a comparatively low level thereafter. The $T_{90}$ burst duration distribution peaks at 840~ms; the distribution of waiting times to the next burst is fit with a log-normal with an average of 2.1 s. The 1-10 keV burst spectra are well fit by a blackbody, with an average temperature and area of $kT=1.7$ keV and $R^2=53$ km$^2$. The differential burst fluence distribution over $\sim3$ orders of magnitude is well modeled with a power-law form $dN/dF\propto F^{-1.5\pm0.1}$. The source persistent emission pulse profile is double-peaked hours after the burst storm. We find that the bursts peak arrival times follow a uniform distribution in pulse phase, though the fast radio burst associated with the source aligns in phase with the brighter peak. We measure the source spin-down from heavy-cadence observations covering days 21 to 39 post-outburst, $\dot��=-3.72(3)\times10^{-12}$ Hz s$^{-1}$; a factor 2.7 larger than the value measured after the 2014 outburst. Finally, the persistent emission flux and blackbody temperature decrease rapidly in the early stages of the outburst, reaching quiescence 40 days later, while the size of the emitting area remains unchanged., Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

The spectra of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) are complex and time-variable, sometimes peaking within the observing band and showing a fractional emission bandwidth of about 10-30%. These spectral features may provide insight into the emission mechanism of repeating fast radio bursts, or they could possibly be explained by extrinsic propagation effects in the local environment. Broadband observations can better quantify this behavior and help to distinguish between intrinsic and extrinsic effects. We present results from a simultaneous 2.25 and 8.36 GHz observation of the repeating FRB 121102 using the 70 m Deep Space Network (DSN) radio telescope, DSS-43. During the 5.7 hr continuous observing session, we detected 6 bursts from FRB 121102, which were visible in the 2.25 GHz frequency band. However, none of these bursts were detected in the 8.36 GHz band, despite the larger bandwidth and greater sensitivity in the higher-frequency band. This effect is not explainable by Galactic scintillation and, along with previous multi-band experiments, clearly demonstrates that apparent burst activity depends strongly on the radio frequency band that is being observed., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 1 table. Accepted for publication in ApJL on 2020 June 8. v2: Updated to match published version

Phased VLA observations of the Galactic center magnetar J1745-2900 over 8-12 GHz reveal rich single pulse behavior. The average profile is comprised of several distinct components and is fairly stable over day timescales and GHz frequencies. The average profile is dominated by the jitter of relatively narrow pulses. The pulses in each of the four profile components are uncorrelated in phase and amplitude, although the occurrence of pulse components 1 and 2 appear to be correlated. Using a collection of the brightest individual pulses, we verify that the index of the dispersion law is consistent with the expected cold plasma value of 2. The scattering time is weakly constrained, but consistent with previous measurements, while the dispersion measure DM = 1763+3−10 pc cm−3 is lower than previous measurements, which could be a result of time variability in the line-of-sight column density or changing pulse profile shape over time or frequency.

The spectra of fast radio bursts (FRBs) encode valuable information about the source's local environment, underlying emission mechanism(s), and the intervening media along the line of sight. We present results from a long-term multiwavelength radio monitoring campaign of two repeating FRB sources, FRB 121102 and FRB 180916.J0158+65, with the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) 70-m radio telescopes (DSS-63 and DSS-14). The observations of FRB 121102 were performed simultaneously at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz, and spanned a total of 27.3 hr between 2019 September 19 and 2020 February 11. We detected 2 radio bursts in the 2.3 GHz frequency band from FRB 121102, but no evidence of radio emission was found at 8.4 GHz during any of our observations. We observed FRB 180916.J0158+65 simultaneously at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz, and also separately in the 1.5 GHz frequency band, for a total of 101.8 hr between 2019 September 19 and 2020 May 14. Our observations of FRB 180916.J0158+65 spanned multiple activity cycles during which the source was known to be active and covered a wide range of activity phases. Several of our observations occurred during times when bursts were detected from the source between 400-800 MHz with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) radio telescope. However, no radio bursts were detected from FRB 180916.J0158+65 at any of the frequencies used during our observations with the DSN radio telescopes. We find that FRB 180916.J0158+65's apparent activity is strongly frequency-dependent due to the narrowband nature of its radio bursts, which have less spectral occupancy at high radio frequencies ($\gtrsim$ 2 GHz). We also find that fewer or fainter bursts are emitted from the source at high radio frequencies. We discuss the implications of these results on possible progenitor models of repeating FRBs., Comment: 17 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJL on 2020 November 12

We report on the hard X-ray burst and the first ~100 days NICER monitoring of the soft X-ray temporal and spectral evolution of the newly-discovered magnetar Swift J1818.0-1607. The burst properties are typical of magnetars with a duration of $T_{90}=10\pm4$ ms and a temperature of $kT=8.4\pm0.7$ keV. The 2--8 keV pulse shows a broad, single peak profile with a pulse fraction increasing with time from 30% to 43%. The NICER observations reveal strong timing noise with $\dot{\nu}$ varying erratically by a factor of 10, with an average long-term spin-down rate of $\dot{\nu}=(-2.48\pm0.03)\times10^{-11}$~s$^{-2}$, implying an equatorial surface magnetic field of $2.5\times10^{14}$ G and a young characteristic age of $\sim$470 yr. We detect a large spin-up glitch at MJD 58928.56 followed by a candidate spin-down glitch at MJD 58934.81, with no accompanying flux enhancements. The persistent soft X-ray spectrum of Swift~J1818.0-1607 can be modeled as an absorbed blackbody with a temperature of ~1 keV. Its flux decayed by ~60% while the modeled emitting area decreased by ~30% over the NICER observing campaign. This decrease, coupled with the increase in the pulse fraction points to a shrinking hot spot on the neutron star surface. Assuming a distance of 6.5 kpc, we measure a peak X-ray luminosity of $1.9\times10^{35}$ erg/s, lower than its spin-down luminosity of $7.2\times10^{35}$ erg/s. Its quiescent thermal luminosity is $\lesssim 1.7\times10^{34}$ erg/s, lower than those of canonical young magnetars. We conclude that Swift J1818.0-1607 is an important link between regular magnetars and high magnetic field rotation powered pulsars., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures, 2tables, accepted for publication in ApJ

We report on simultaneous radio and X-ray observations of the repeating fast radio burst source FRB 180916.J0158+65 using the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), Effelsberg, and Deep Space Network (DSS-14 and DSS-63) radio telescopes and the Chandra X-ray Observatory. During 33 ks of Chandra observations, we detect no radio bursts in overlapping Effelsberg or Deep Space Network observations and a single radio burst during CHIME/FRB source transits. We detect no X-ray events in excess of the background during the Chandra observations. These non-detections imply a 5-$��$ limit of $, 16 pages, 2 figures, submitted to ApJ

The Deep Space Network (DSN) is a worldwide array of radio telescopes that supports NASA's interplanetary spacecraft missions. When the DSN antennas are not communicating with spacecraft, they provide a valuable resource for performing observations of radio magnetars, searches for new pulsars at the Galactic Center, and additional pulsar-related studies. We describe the DSN's capabilities for carrying out these types of observations. We also present results from observations of three radio magnetars, PSR J1745-2900, PSR J1622-4950, and XTE J1810-197, and the transitional magnetar candidate, PSR J1119-6127, using the DSN radio telescopes near Canberra, Australia., Comment: 14 pages, 8 figures, Accepted for publication in Advances in Astronomy on 2019 January 27 (Invited paper for a special issue on magnetars)

We present results from observations of the Galactic Center magnetar, PSR J1745-2900, at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz with the NASA Deep Space Network 70 m antenna, DSS-43. We study the magnetar's radio profile shape, flux density, radio spectrum, and single pulse behavior over a ~1 year period between MJDs 57233 and 57621. In particular, the magnetar exhibits a significantly negative average spectral index of $\langle\alpha\rangle$ = -1.86 $\pm$ 0.02 when the 8.4 GHz profile is single-peaked, which flattens considerably when the profile is double-peaked. We have carried out an analysis of single pulses at 8.4 GHz on MJD 57479 and find that giant pulses and pulses with multiple emission components are emitted during a significant number of rotations. The resulting single pulse flux density distribution is incompatible with a log-normal distribution. The typical pulse width of the components is ~1.8 ms, and the prevailing delay time between successive components is ~7.7 ms. Many of the single pulse emission components show significant frequency structure over bandwidths of ~100 MHz, which we believe is the first observation of such behavior from a radio magnetar. We report a characteristic single pulse broadening timescale of $\langle\tau_{d}\rangle$ = 6.9 $\pm$ 0.2 ms at 8.4 GHz. We find that the pulse broadening is highly variable between emission components and cannot be explained by a thin scattering screen at distances $\gtrsim$ 1 kpc. We discuss possible intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms for the magnetar's emission and compare our results to other magnetars, high magnetic field pulsars, and fast radio bursts., Comment: 18 pages, 12 figures, Accepted for publication in ApJ on 2018 August 30. v2: Updated to match published version

In this paper, autonomous pulsar-based spacecraft navigation problem is formulated in terms of a nonlinear filtering problem. The spacecraft dynamics, pulsar-timing model, and clock deviation model are combined to form the navigation system. An extended Kalman filter that uses epoch folding and leverages the timescale of the system is developed to more efficiently estimate the spacecraft states from four simultaneous X-ray pulsar measurements. Simulation results of an orbiter mission and a deep space mission are presented to show the accuracy of pulsar-based navigation in space.

The Deep Space Network (DSN) Transient Observatory (DTO) is a signal processing facility that can monitor up to four DSN downlink bands for astronomically interesting signals. The monitoring is done commensally with reception of deep space mission telemetry. The initial signal processing is done with two CASPER a ROACH1 boards, each handling one or two baseband signals. Each ROACH1 has a 10 GBe interface with a GPU-equipped Debian Linux workstation for additional processing. The initial science programs include monitoring Mars for electrostatic discharges, radio spectral lines, searches for fast radio bursts and pulsars and SETI. The facility will be available to the scientific community through a peer review process.

We present the earliest available soft X-ray observations of XTE J1810-187, the prototypical transient magnetar, obtained 75--84 days after its 2018 outburst with the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER). Using a series of observations covering eight days we find that its decreasing X-ray flux is well-described by either a blackbody plus power-law or a two-blackbody spectral model. The 2-10 keV flux of the source varied from (1.206+/-0.007)x10^{-10} to (1.125+/-0.004)x10^{-10} erg s^{-1} cm^{-2}, a decrease of about 7% within our observations and 44% from that measured 7-14 days after the outburst with NuSTAR. We confirm that the pulsed fraction and spin pulse phase of the neutron star are energy dependent up to at least 8 keV. Phase resolved spectroscopy of the pulsar suggests magnetospheric variations relative to the line of sight., Comment: Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are a class of radio pulsars with extremely stable rotation. Their excellent timing stability can be used to study a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena. In particular, a large sample of these pulsars can be used to detect low-frequency gravitational waves. We have developed a precision pulsar timing backend for the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN), which will allow the use of short gaps in tracking schedules to time pulses from an ensemble of MSPs. The DSN operates clusters of large dish antennas (up to 70-m in diameter), located roughly equidistant around the Earth, for communication and tracking of deep-space spacecraft. The backend system will be capable of removing entirely the dispersive effects of propagation of radio waves through the interstellar medium in real-time. We will describe our development work, initial results, and prospects for future observations over the next few years.

The 70-m DSN's Deep Space Station antenna 14 (DSS-14) at Goldstone has recently been outfitted with instrumentation to enable pulsar searching and timing operation. Systems capable of similar operations are undergoing installation at DSS-63, and are planned for DSS-43. The Goldstone system is the first of these to become operational, with a 640 MHz bandwidth stretching from 1325-1965 MHz. Initial results from the pulsar timing pipeline show short-term residuals of < 100 ns for pulsar B1937+21. Commissioning obsefvations at DSS-14 to obtain a baseline set of TOA measurements on several millisecond pulsars are currently underway., 7 pages, 7 figures

Recent discoveries in high-time-resolution radio astronomy data have focused attention on a new class of events. Fast transients are rare pulses of radio frequency energy lasting from microseconds to seconds that might be produced by a variety of exotic astrophysical phenomena. For example, X-ray bursts, neutron stars, and active galactic nuclei are all possible sources of short-duration, transient radio signals. It is difficult to anticipate where such signals might appear, and they are most commonly discovered through analysis of high-time- resolution data that had been collected for other purposes. Transients are often faint and difficult to detect, so improved detection algorithms can directly benefit the science yield of all such commensal monitoring. A new detection algorithm learns a low-dimensional linear manifold for describing the normal data. High reconstruction error indicates a novel signal that does not match the patterns of normal data. One unsupervised portion of the manifold model adapts its representation in response to recent data. A second supervised portion of the model is made of a basis trained in advance using labeled examples of RFI; this prevents false positives due to these events. For a linear model, an orthonormalization operation is used to combine these bases prior to the anomaly detection decision. Another novel aspect of the approach lies in combining basis vectors learned in an unsupervised, online fashion from the data stream with supervised basis vectors learned in advance from known examples of false alarms. Adaptive, data-driven detection is achieved that is also informed by existing domain knowledge about signals that may be statistically anomalous, but are not interesting and should therefore be ignored. The method was evaluated using data from the Parkes Multibeam Survey. This data set was originally collected to search for pulsars, which are astronomical sources that emit radio pulses at regular periods. However, several non-pulsar anomalies have recently been discovered in this dataset, making it a compelling test case. By explicitly filtering known false alarm patterns, the approach yields significantly better performance than current transient detection methods.

We have carried out high frequency radio observations of the high magnetic field pulsar PSR J1119-6127 following its recent X-ray outburst. While initial observations showed no evidence of significant radio emission, subsequent observations detected pulsed emission across a large frequency band. In this letter, we report on the initial disappearance of the pulsed emission and its prompt reactivation and dramatic evolution over several months of observation. The periodic pulse profile at S-band (2.3 GHz) after reactivation exhibits a multi-component emission structure, while the simultaneous X-band (8.4 GHz) profile shows a single emission peak. Single pulses were also detected at S-band near the main emission peaks. We present measurements of the spectral index across a wide frequency bandwidth, which captures the underlying changes in the radio emission profile of the neutron star. The high frequency radio detection, unusual emission profile, and observed variability suggest similarities with magnetars, which may independently link the high energy outbursts to magnetar-like behavior., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJL. 2 figures, 2 tables

XMM-Newton archival data for the Small Magellanic Cloud have been examined for the presence of previously undetected X-ray pulsars. One such pulsar, with a period of 202 s, is detected. Its position is consistent with an early B star in the SMC and we identify it as a high mass X-ray binary (HMXB). In the course of this study we determined the pulse period of the possible AXP CXOU J010043.1-721134 to be 8.0 s, correcting an earlier report (Lamb et al 2002b) of a 5.4 s period for this object. Pulse profiles and spectra for each of these objects are presented as well as for a recently discovered (Haberl & Pietsch 2004) 263 s X-ray pulsar. Properties of an ensemble of 24 optically identified HMXB pulsars from the SMC are investigated. The locations of the pulsars and an additional 22 X-ray pulsars not yet identified as having high mass companions are located predominately in the young (ages $\le 3 \times 10^{7}$ years) star forming regions of the SMC as expected on the basis of binary evolution models. We find no significant difference between the distribution of spin periods for the HMXB pulsars of the SMC compared with that of the Milky Way. For those HMXB pulsars which have Be companions we note an inverse correlation between spin period and maximum X-ray flux density. (This anti-correlation has been previously noted for all X-ray binary pulsars by Stella, White & Rosner 1986). The anti-correlation for the Be binaries may be a reflection of the fact that the spin periods and orbital periods of Be HMXBs are correlated. We note a similar correlation between X-ray luminosity and spin period for the Be HMXB pulsars of the Milky Way and speculate that exploitation of the correlation could serve as a distance indicator., final version accepted in The Astrophysical Journal

Recent years have seen a burgeoning interest in using pulsar timing arrays (PTAs) as gravitational-wave (GW) detectors. To date, that interest has focused mainly on three particularly promising source types: supermassive--black-hole binaries, cosmic strings, and the stochastic background from early-Universe phase transitions. In this paper, by contrast, our aim is to investigate the PTA potential for discovering unanticipated sources. We derive significant constraints on the available discovery space based solely on energetic and statistical considerations: we show that a PTA detection of GWs at frequencies above ~3.e-5 Hz would either be an extraordinary coincidence or violate "cherished beliefs;" we show that for PTAs GW memory can be more detectable than direct GWs, and that, as we consider events at ever higher redshift, the memory effect increasingly dominates an event's total signal-to-noise ratio. The paper includes also a simple analysis of the effects of pulsar red noise in PTA searches, and a demonstration that the effects of periodic GWs in the 10^-8 -- 10^-4.5 Hz band would not be degenerate with small errors in standard pulsar parameters (except in a few narrow bands)., Comment: 12 pages, 1 figure, submitted to PRD

A new generation of observational science instruments is dramatically increasing collected data volumes in a range of fields. These instruments include the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST), terrestrial sensor networks, and NASA satellites participating in "decadal survey"' missions. Their unprecedented coverage and sensitivity will likely reveal wholly new categories of unexpected and transient events. Commensal methods passively analyze these data streams, recognizing anomalous events of scientific interest and reacting in real time. Here, the authors report on a case example: Very Long Baseline Array Fast Transients Experiment (V-FASTR), an ongoing commensal experiment at the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) that uses online adaptive pattern recognition to search for anomalous fast radio transients. V-FASTR triages a millisecond-resolution stream of data and promotes candidate anomalies for further offline analysis. It tunes detection parameters in real time, injecting synthetic events to continually retrain itself for optimum performance. This self-tuning approach retains sensitivity to weak signals while adapting to changing instrument configurations and noise conditions. The system has operated since July 2011, making it the longest-running real-time commensal radio transient experiment to date.

We define a framework for determining constraints on the detection rate of fast transient events from a population of underlying sources, with a view to incorporating beam shape, frequency effects, scattering effects, and detection efficiency into the metric. We then demonstrate a method for combining independent datasets into a single event rate constraint diagram, using a probabilistic approach to the limits on parameter space. We apply this new framework to present the latest results from the V-FASTR experiment, a commensal fast transients search using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). In the 20 cm band, V-FASTR now has the ability to probe the regions of parameter space of importance for the observed Lorimer and Keane fast radio transient candidates, by combining the information from observations with differing bandwidths, and properly accounting for the source dispersion measure, VLBA antenna beam shape, experiment time sampling, and stochastic nature of events. We then apply the framework to combine the results of the V-FASTR and ATA Fly's Eye experiments, demonstrating their complementarity. Expectations for fast transients experiments for the SKA Phase I dish array are then computed, and the impact of large differential bandwidths is discussed., Comment: 23 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal

Future large radio astronomy arrays, particularly the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), will be able to generate data at rates far higher than can be analyzed or stored affordably with current practices. This is, by definition, a "big data" problem, and requires an end-to-end solution if future radio arrays are to reach their full scientific potential. Similar data processing, transport, storage, and management challenges face next-generation facilities in many other fields. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing technologies to address big data issues, with an emphasis in three areas: 1) Lower-power digital processing architectures to make highvolume data generation operationally affordable, 2) Date-adaptive machine learning algorithms for real-time analysis (or "data triage") of large data volumes, and 3) Scalable data archive systems that allow efficient data mining and remote user code to run locally where the data are stored.1

The NANOGrav project's goal is to make a direct detection of gravitational waves taking advantage of the extraordinary rotational stability of millisecond pulsars. The project has identified 80 pulsars for regular timing over the next 10–20 years. The fantastic timing precision at the level of 100 ns necessary for detection of gravitational waves imposes strict requirements on understanding and correcting for systematic errors at the same precision level. A major source of systematic error has been identified as the changing interstellar medium density, which manifests itself in the dispersion correction applied to each observation. In this presentation we describe a new program to monitor a subset of NANOGrav pulsars using a large radio telescope in Goldstone, CA. The wideband capability of this instrument combined with excellent sensitivity provides an opportunity to develop and maintain a long-term precision monitoring program of interstellar plasma along the lines of sight to these pulsars.

Recent discoveries of dispersed, non-periodic impulsive radio signals with single-dish radio telescopes have sparked significant interest in exploring the relatively uncharted space of fast transient radio signals. Here we describe V-FASTR, an experiment to perform a blind search for fast transient radio signals using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The experiment runs entirely in a commensal mode, alongside normal VLBA observations and operations. It is made possible by the features and flexibility of the DiFX software correlator that is used to process VLBA data. Using the VLBA for this type of experiment offers significant advantages over single-dish experiments, including a larger field of view, the ability to easily distinguish local radio-frequency interference from real signals and the possibility to localize detected events on the sky to milliarcsecond accuracy. We describe our software pipeline, which accepts short integration (~ms) spectrometer data from each antenna in real time during correlation and performs an incoherent dedispersion separately for each antenna, over a range of trial dispersion measures. The dedispersed data are processed by a sophisticated detector and candidate events are recorded. At the end of the correlation, small snippets of the raw data at the time of the events are stored for further analysis. We present the results of our event detection pipeline from some test observations of the pulsars B0329+54 and B0531+21 (the Crab pulsar)., 14 pages, 6 figures. Accepted to ApJ. Minor updates to match journal proofs

We have observed the Crab pulsar with the Deep Space Network (DSN) Goldstone 70 m antenna at 1664 MHz during three observing epochs for a total of 4 hours. Our data analysis has detected more than 2500 giant pulses, with flux densities ranging from 0.1 kJy to 150 kJy and pulse widths from 125 ns (limited by our bandwidth) to as long as 100 microseconds, with median power amplitudes and widths of 1 kJy and 2 microseconds respectively. The most energetic pulses in our sample have energy fluxes of approximately 100 kJy-microsecond. We have used this large sample to investigate a number of giant-pulse emission properties in the Crab pulsar, including correlations among pulse flux density, width, energy flux, phase and time of arrival. We present a consistent accounting of the probability distributions and threshold cuts in order to reduce pulse-width biases. The excellent sensitivity obtained has allowed us to probe further into the population of giant pulses. We find that a significant portion, no less than 50%, of the overall pulsed energy flux at our observing frequency is emitted in the form of giant pulses., Comment: 19 pages, 17 figures; to be published in Astrophysical Journal

At present spacecraft angular position with Deep Space Network (DSN) is determined using group delay estimates from very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) phase measurements employing differential one way ranging (DOR) tones. As an alternative to this approach, we propose estimating position of a spacecraft to half a fringe cycle accuracy using time variations between measured and calculated phases as the Earth rotates using DSN VLBI baseline(s). Combining fringe location of the target with the phase allows high accuracy for spacecraft angular position estimate. This can be achieved using telemetry signals of at least 4–8 MSamples/sec data rate or DOR tones.

Compact radio sources are routinely used as reference calibrators in VLBI observations of radio sources to accurately determine the latter's position. Similar techniques have been developed over the years to determine the position of spacecrafts with remarkable accuracy at the level of a few nano-radians. We have carried out measurements at the DSN (Deep Space Network) that show great promise to further improve the accuracy below one nano-radian by removing many sources of calibration errors. This level of improvement is achieved by taking advantage of calibrators that are within one degree of the radio source. However, such improvement can be counted on only if there are sufficient numbers of compact radio sources near the position of the spacecraft. Over the last two years, we have carried out small surveys of the sky with the VLA and subsequently with the VLBA to empirically determine the compact radio source density at 8 GHz for sources with flux density above 1 mJy. We will report the results of the latest observations and their implication for precision spacecraft astrometry.

The deep space network (DSN) Array of the future provides an intriguing possibility of using the techniques of in-beam phase referencing to determine the angular position of spacecraft with accuracy at the level of 0.1 nano-radian (nrad). In this paper, we discuss the prospects for carrying out such measurements at both 8.4 GHz (X-band) and 32 GHz (Ka-band). Our study suggests that at X-band in-beam calibration may be available as an astrometric tool over 20-30 percent of the sky. The prospects at Ka-band, on the other hand, are not very hopeful. We point out that these estimates depend strongly on the number density of compact sources at the 1-mJy level. We also present the results from our recent VLBA (very long baseline array) observations at X-band, which has determined the compact source density at the 10-mJy level and discuss future observations to probe weaker source population. Finally, we discuss issues related to phase cycle ambiguity resolution and potential techniques to resolve them.

Precision measurements are now capable of determining the angular position of spacecrafts with accuracies of 2-5 nanoradians. To achieve this level of precision, compact radio sources with flux density of at least a few hundred milli-Jansky (at 8.4 GHz) are used for calibration purposes. Further improvements in position measurement accuracy may be possible with use of appropriate calibrators near the direction of the spacecrafts even if the calibrators are much weaker (a few milli-Jansky) in flux density. In this paper we discuss the calibrator flux density required to achieve sub-nanoradian astrometric accuracy and attempt to estimate the density of suitable calibrators, using existing source count surveys. We point out, however, that the fraction of these sources that are suitable for use as calibrators is not well understood and requires further study.

The LIGO interferometers are operating as gravitational wave observatories, with a noise level near an order of magnitude of the goal and the first scientific data recently taken. This data has been analyzed for four different categories of gravitational wave sources; millisecond bursts, inspiralling binary neutron stars, periodic waves from a known pulsar, and stochastic background. Research and development is also underway for the next generation LIGO detector, Advanced LIGO.

We report on a search for gravitational waves from binary black hole inspirals in the data from the second science run of the LIGO interferometers. The search focused on binary systems with component masses between 3 and 20 solar masses. Optimally oriented binaries with distances up to 1 Mpc could be detected with efficiency of at least 90%. We found no events that could be identified as gravitational waves in the 385.6 hours of data that we searched., 18 pages, 8 figures

We search for coincident gravitational wave signals from inspiralling neutron star binaries using LIGO and TAMA300 data taken during early 2003. Using a simple trigger exchange method, we perform an inter-collaboration coincidence search during times when TAMA300 and only one of the LIGO sites were operational. We find no evidence of any gravitational wave signals. We place an observational upper limit on the rate of binary neutron star coalescence with component masses between 1 and 3 M_sun of 49 per year per Milky Way equivalent galaxy at a 90% confidence level. The methods developed during this search will find application in future network inspiral analyses., 9 pages, 5 figures. Updated with published version

We use data from the second science run of the LIGO gravitational-wave detectors to search for the gravitational waves from primordial black hole (PBH) binary coalescence with component masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$. The analysis requires a signal to be found in the data from both LIGO observatories, according to a set of coincidence criteria. No inspiral signals were found. Assuming a spherical halo with core radius 5 kpc extending to 50 kpc containing non-spinning black holes with masses in the range 0.2--$1.0 M_\odot$, we place an observational upper limit on the rate of PBH coalescence of 63 per year per Milky Way halo (MWH) with 90% confidence., Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D