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1. Radio Pulse Profiles and Polarization of the Terzan 5 Pulsars

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aca156  

   Martsen, Ashley R.; Ransom, Scott M.; DeCesar, Megan E.; Freire, Paulo C.; Hessels, Jason W.; Ho, Anna Y.; Lynch, Ryan S.; Stairs, Ingrid H.; Wang, Yuankun (December 2022, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract Terzan 5 is a rich globular cluster within the galactic bulge containing 39 known millisecond pulsars, the largest known population of any globular cluster. These faint pulsars do not have sufficient signal-to-noise ratio (S/N) to measure reliable flux density or polarization information from individual observations in general. We combined over 5.2 days of archival data, at 1500 and 2000 MHz, taken with the Green Bank Telescope over the past 12 years. We created high-S/N profiles for 32 of the pulsars and determined precise rotation measures (RMs) for 28. We used the RMs, pulsar positions, and dispersion measures to map the projected parallel component of the Galactic magnetic field toward the cluster. The 〈 B ∣∣ 〉 shows a rough gradient of ∼6 nG arcsec −1 (∼160 nG pc −1 ) or, fractionally, a change of ∼20% in the R.A. direction across the cluster, implying Galactic magnetic field variability at sub-parsec scales. We also measured average flux densities S ν for the pulsars, ranging from ∼10 μ Jy to ∼2 mJy, and an average spectral index α = −1.35, where S ν ∝ ν α . This spectral index is flatter than most known pulsars, likely a selection effect due to the high frequencies used in pulsar searches to mitigate dispersion and scattering. We used flux densities from each observation to constrain the scintillation properties toward the cluster, finding strong refractive modulation on timescales of months. The inferred pulsar luminosity function is roughly power law, with slope ( d log N ) / ( d log L ) = − 1 at the high-luminosity end. At the low-luminosity end, there are incompleteness effects, implying that Terzan 5 contains many more pulsars. 

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2. Discovery and timing of ten new millisecond pulsars in the globular cluster Terzan 5

   https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202449303  

   Padmanabh, P V; Ransom, S M; Freire, P_C C; Ridolfi, A; Taylor, J D; Choza, C; Clark, C J; Abbate, F; Bailes, M; Barr, E D; et al (June 2024, Astronomy & Astrophysics)

   We report the discovery of ten new pulsars in the globular cluster Terzan 5 as part of the Transients and Pulsars with MeerKAT (TRAPUM) Large Survey Project. We observed Terzan 5 atL-band (856–1712 MHz) with the MeerKAT radio telescope for four hours on two epochs, and performed acceleration searches of 45 out of 288 tied-array beams covering the core of the cluster. We obtained phase-connected timing solutions for all ten discoveries, covering nearly two decades of archival observations from the Green Bank Telescope for all but one. Highlights include PSR J1748−2446ao which is an eccentric (e = 0.32) wide-orbit (orbital periodP_b = 57.55 d) system. We were able to measure the rate of advance of periastron (ω̇) for this system allowing us to determine a total mass of 3.17 ± 0.02 M_⊙. With a minimum companion mass (M_c) of ∼0.8 M_⊙, PSR J1748−2446ao is a candidate double neutron star (DNS) system. If confirmed to be a DNS, it would be the fastest spinning pulsar (P = 2.27 ms) and the longest orbital period measured for any known DNS system. PSR J1748−2446ap has the second highest eccentricity for any recycled pulsar (e ∼ 0.905) and for this system we can measure the total mass (1.997 ± 0.006 M_⊙) and estimate the pulsar and companion masses, (1.700_−0.045^+0.015 M_⊙and 0.294_−0.014^+0.046 M_⊙, respectively). PSR J1748−2446ar is an eclipsing redback (minimumM_c ∼ 0.34 M_⊙) system whose properties confirm it to be the counterpart to a previously published source identified in radio and X-ray imaging. We were also able to detectω̇for PSR J1748−2446au leading to a total mass estimate of 1.82 ± 0.07 M_⊙and indicating that the system is likely the result of Case A Roche lobe overflow. With these discoveries, the total number of confirmed pulsars in Terzan 5 is 49, the highest for any globular cluster so far. These discoveries further enhance the rich set of pulsars known in Terzan 5 and provide scope for a deeper understanding of binary stellar evolution, cluster dynamics and ensemble population studies. 

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3. Discovery of a Young, Highly Scattered Pulsar PSR J1032-5804 with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad0fe8  

   Wang, Ziteng; Kaplan, David L; Sengar, Rahul; Lenc, Emil; Zic, Andrew; Anumarlapudi, Akash; Gaensler, B M; Hurley-Walker, Natasha; Murphy, Tara; Wang, Yuanming (January 2024, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We report the discovery of a young, highly scattered pulsar in a search for highly circularly polarized radio sources as part of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder Variables and Slow Transients survey. In follow-up observations with the Parkes radio telescope, Murriyang, we identified PSR J1032−5804 and measured a period of 78.7 ms, a dispersion measure of 819 ± 4 pc cm⁻³, a rotation measure of −2000 ± 1 rad m⁻², and a characteristic age of 34.6 kyr. We found a pulse scattering timescale at 3 GHz of ∼22 ms, implying a timescale at 1 GHz of ∼3845 ms, which is the third most scattered pulsar known and explains its nondetection in previous pulsar surveys. We discuss the identification of a possible pulsar wind nebula and supernova remnant in the pulsar’s local environment by analyzing the pulsar spectral energy distribution and the surrounding extended emission from multiwavelength images. Our result highlights the possibility of identifying extremely scattered pulsars from radio continuum images. Ongoing and future large-scale radio continuum surveys will offer us an unprecedented opportunity to find more extreme pulsars (e.g., highly scattered, highly intermittent, and highly accelerated), which will enhance our understanding of the characteristics of pulsars and the interstellar medium. 

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4. Discovery of PSR J0523-7125 as a Circularly Polarized Variable Radio Source in the Large Magellanic Cloud

   https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ac61dc  

   Wang, Yuanming; Murphy, Tara; Kaplan, David L.; Klinner-Teo, Teresa; Ridolfi, Alessandro; Bailes, Matthew; Crawford, Fronefield; Dai, Shi; Dobie, Dougal; Gaensler, B. M.; et al (May 2022, The Astrophysical Journal)

   Abstract We report the discovery of a highly circularly polarized, variable, steep-spectrum pulsar in the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) survey. The pulsar is located about 1° from the center of the Large Magellanic Cloud, and has a significant fractional circular polarization of ∼20%. We discovered pulsations with a period of 322.5 ms, dispersion measure (DM) of 157.5 pc cm −3 , and rotation measure (RM) of +456 rad m −2 using observations from the MeerKAT and the Parkes telescopes. This DM firmly places the source, PSR J0523−7125, in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC). This RM is extreme compared to other pulsars in the LMC (more than twice that of the largest previously reported one). The average flux density of ∼1 mJy at 1400 MHz and ∼25 mJy at 400 MHz places it among the most luminous radio pulsars known. It likely evaded previous discovery because of its very steep radio spectrum (spectral index α ≈ −3, where S ν ∝ ν α ) and broad pulse profile (duty cycle ≳35%). We discuss implications for searches for unusual radio sources in continuum images, as well as extragalactic pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds and beyond. Our result highlighted the possibility of identifying pulsars, especially extreme pulsars, from radio continuum images. Future large-scale radio surveys will give us an unprecedented opportunity to discover more pulsars and potentially the most distant pulsars beyond the Magellanic Clouds. 

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5. From downtown to the outskirts: a radio survey of the Orion Nebula Cluster

   https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stab1826  

   Vargas-González, J; Forbrich, J; Dzib, S A; Bally, J (July 2021, Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society)

   null (Ed.)

   ABSTRACT We present a newly enlarged census of the compact radio population towards the Orion Nebula Cluster (ONC) using high-sensitivity continuum maps (3–10 $$\mu$$Jy beam−1) from a total of ∼30-h centimetre-wavelength observations over an area of ∼20 × 20 arcmin2 obtained in the C-band (4–8 GHz) with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in its high-resolution A-configuration. We thus complement our previous deep survey of the innermost areas of the ONC, now covering the field of view of the Chandra Orion Ultra-deep Project (COUP). Our catalogue contains 521 compact radio sources of which 198 are new detections. Overall, we find that 17 per cent of the (mostly stellar) COUP sources have radio counterparts, while 53 per cent of the radio sources have COUP counterparts. Most notably, the radio detection fraction of X-ray sources is higher in the inner cluster and almost constant for r > 3 arcmin (0.36 pc) from θ1 Ori C, suggesting a correlation between the radio emission mechanism of these sources and their distance from the most massive stars at the centre of the cluster, e.g. due to increased photoionisation of circumstellar discs. The combination with our previous observations 4 yr prior lead to the discovery of fast proper motions of up to ∼373 km s−1 from faint radio sources associated with ejecta of the OMC1 explosion. Finally, we search for strong radio variability. We found changes in flux density by a factor of ≲5 within our observations and a few sources with changes by a factor >10 on long time-scales of a few years. 

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