Radio and X-ray observations of the intermittent pulsar J1832+0029

Abstract

We report on radio and X-ray observations of PSR 1832+0029, a 533-ms radio pulsar discovered in the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey. From radio observations taken with the Parkes, Lovell and Arecibo telescopes, we show that this pulsar exhibits two spindown states akin to PSRs B1931+24 reported by Kramer et al. and J1841-0500 reported by Camilo et al. Unlike PSR B1931+24, which switches between "on" and "off" states on a 30--40 day time-scale, PSR 1832+0029 is similar to PSR J1841-0500 in that it spends a much longer period of time in the off-state. So far, we have fully sampled two off-states. The first one lasted between 560 and 640 days and the second one lasted between 810 and 835 days. From our radio timing observations, the ratio of on/off spindown rates is $1.77\pm 0.03$. Chandra observations carried out during both the on- and off-states of this pulsar failed to detect any emission. Our results challenge but do not rule out models involving accretion onto the neutron star from a low-mass stellar companion. In spite of the small number of intermittent pulsars currently known, difficulties in discovering them and in quantifying their behavior imply that their total population could be substantial.

16 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, submitted to ApJ

References in corpus (9)

• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey: VI. Discovery and timing of 142 pulsars and a Galactic population analysis
• Switched magnetospheric regulation of pulsar spin-down
• A periodically active pulsar giving insight into magnetospheric physics
• Pulsar Nulling and Mode Changing
• On the birthrates of Galactic neutron stars
• On the role of the current loss in radio pulsar evolution
• Detection of X-ray Emission from the Very Old Pulsar J0108-1431
• X-ray emission from the double neutron star binary B1534+12: Powered by the pulsar wind?

Cited by in corpus (10)

• The unusual glitch recoveries of the high magnetic field pulsar J1119$-$6127
• On the Apparent Nulls and Extreme Variability of PSR J1107-5907
• Understanding the spin-down rate changes of PSR B0919+06
• Long-term Observations of Three Nulling Pulsars
• Discovery of a Spin-Down State Change in the LMC Pulsar B0540-69
• LOFAR observations of PSR B0943+10: profile evolution and discovery of a systematically changing profile delay in Bright mode
• The Three Discrete Nulling Timescales of PSR J1717-4054
• The Light Curve and Internal Magnetic Field of the Mode-Switching Pulsar PSR B0943+10
• Pulsar Timing Arrays
• A multi-component Langmuir-mode source for the observed pulsar coherent emission