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Large High-precision X-Ray Timing of Three Millisecond Pulsars with $NICER$: Stability Estimates and Comparison with Radio
- Source :
- The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, American Astronomical Society, 2019, 874 (2), pp.160. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab0966⟩, Astrophys.J., Astrophys.J., 2019, 874 (2), pp.160. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab0966⟩
- Publication Year :
- 2019
- Publisher :
- HAL CCSD, 2019.
-
Abstract
- The Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) is an X-ray astrophysics payload on the International Space Station. It enables unprecedented high-precision timing of millisecond pulsars without the pulse broadening and delays due to dispersion and scattering within the interstellar medium that plague radio timing. We present initial timing results from a year of data on the millisecond pulsars PSR B1937+21 and PSR J0218+4232, and nine months of data on PSR B1821-24. NICER time-of-arrival uncertainties for the three pulsars are consistent with theoretical lower bounds and simulations based on their pulse shape templates and average source and background photon count rates. To estimate timing stability, we use the $\sigma_z$ measure, which is based on the average of the cubic coefficients of polynomial fits to subsets of timing residuals. So far we are achieving timing stabilities $\sigma_z \approx 3 \times 10^{-14}$ for PSR B1937+21 and on the order of $10^{-12}$ for PSRs B1821$-$24 and J0218+4232. Within the span of our \textit{NICER} data we do not yet see the characteristic break point in the slope of $\sigma_z$; detection of such a break would indicate that further improvement in the cumulative root-mean-square (RMS) timing residual is limited by timing noise. We see this break point in our comparison radio data sets for PSR B1821-24 and PSR B1937+21 on time scales of $> 2$ years.<br />Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures; accepted to ApJ
- Subjects :
- 010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Astrophysics::High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
FOS: Physical sciences
Astrophysics
01 natural sciences
7. Clean energy
Stability (probability)
stars: neutron
Pulsar
Millisecond pulsar
pulsars: general
0103 physical sciences
010303 astronomy & astrophysics
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE)
Physics
Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer
Sigma
Order (ring theory)
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Interstellar medium
pulsars: individual
13. Climate action
Space and Planetary Science
[SDU]Sciences of the Universe [physics]
Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
[PHYS.ASTR]Physics [physics]/Astrophysics [astro-ph]
Noise (radio)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 0004637X and 15384357
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- The Astrophysical Journal, The Astrophysical Journal, American Astronomical Society, 2019, 874 (2), pp.160. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab0966⟩, Astrophys.J., Astrophys.J., 2019, 874 (2), pp.160. ⟨10.3847/1538-4357/ab0966⟩
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4d60650d72a2a4f8a8dcc6b64e2fa540