Tomasz Nowakowski is a writer for Phys.org.
An international team of astronomy reported the discovery of a new pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud as part of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) Variables and Slow Transients survey. The newly detected pulsar is a highly circularly and variable radio source. A paper detailing the discovery was published on arXiv.org.
The rotating neutron stars emit a beam of radiation. They are usually detected in the form of short bursts of radio emission. One way to find new pulsars is to look for them in continuum surveys.
The ASKAP Phase I Pilot survey for Variables and Slow Transients (VAST-P1) has recently been analyzed by a group of astronomer led by Yuanming Wang of the University of Sydney, Australia. They identified a highly variable, circularly-polarized, steep-spectrum source. The source was found to be a pulsar in the Large Magellanic Cloud, which received the designation PSR J0523 in follow-up observations.
We discovered a highly-variable object, VAST J052348.6, in a variability analysis of two fields containing the Magellanic Clouds. VAST J052348.6 was considered to be a strong pulsar candidate due to its 20% fractional circular polarization and no optical/infrared counterpart. The researchers said that the Parkes telescope confirmed that the pulsar was associated with the source.
The study states that the spin period for PSR J0523 is 322.5 milliseconds. It was found that its dispersion measure was 157.5 pc/ cm 3, which is consistent with the LMC origin. The most extreme rotation measure found in LMC pulsars was calculated to be at a level of +456 rad/m 2.
The average flux density is 1 mJy at 1,400 MHz and 25 mJy at 400 MHz. This makes it one of the most powerful radio pulsars. PSR J0523 is brighter than all known pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds at both 400 MHz and 1,400 MHz.
The astronomer said that despite its high luminosity, PSR J0523 remained undetected in several LMC surveys. They think it's due to its wide pulse profile.
The wide pulse profile of PSR J0523 suggests that it could be an aligned rotator. The strong variability of this pulsar is likely caused by scintillation effects.
More information: Yuanming Wang et al, Discovery of PSR J0523-7125 as a Circularly Polarized Variable Radio Source in the Large Magellanic Cloud, The Astrophysical Journal (2022). DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ac61dc Journal information: Astrophysical JournalThe Science X Network will be launched in 2022.
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