Limitations in timing precision due to single-pulse shape variability in millisecond pulsars

Abstract

High-sensitivity radio-frequency observations of millisecond pulsars usually show stochastic, broadband, pulse-shape variations intrinsic to the pulsar emission process. These variations induce jitter noise in pulsar timing observations; understanding the properties of this noise is of particular importance for the effort to detect gravitational waves with pulsar timing arrays. We assess the short-term profile and timing stability of 22 millisecond pulsars that are part of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array sample by examining intra-observation arrival time variability and single-pulse phenomenology. In 7 of the 22 pulsars, in the band centred at approximately 1400MHz, we find that the brightest observations are limited by intrinsic jitter. We find consistent results, either detections or upper limits, for jitter noise in other frequency bands. PSR J1909-3744 shows the lowest levels of jitter noise, which we estimate to contribute $\sim$10 ns root mean square error to the arrival times for hour-duration observations. Larger levels of jitter noise are found in pulsars with wider pulses and distributions of pulse intensities. The jitter noise in PSR J0437-4715 decorrelates over a bandwidth of $\sim$2 GHz. We show that the uncertainties associated with timing pulsar models can be improved by including physically motivated jitter uncertainties. Pulse-shape variations will limit the timing precision at future, more sensitive, telescopes; it is imperative to account for this noise when designing instrumentation and timing campaigns for these facilities.

21 pages, 23 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (13)

• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• Tests of general relativity from timing the double pulsar
• PSRCHIVE and PSRFITS An Open Approach to Radio Pulsar Data Storage and Analysis
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• Switched magnetospheric regulation of pulsar spin-down
• Assessing the Role of Spin Noise in the Precision Timing of Millisecond Pulsars
• On measuring the gravitational-wave background using Pulsar Timing Arrays
• High-fidelity radio astronomical polarimetry using a millisecond pulsar as a polarized reference source
• A Measurement Model for Precision Pulsar Timing
• Simultaneous Single-Pulse Observations of Radio Pulsars: V. On the Broadband Nature of The Pulse Nulling Phenomenon in PSR B1133+16
• Timing, polarimetry and physics of the bright, nearby millisecond pulsar PSR J0437-4715 - a single-pulse perspective
• Improving the precision of pulsar timing through polarization statistics

Cited by in corpus (16)

• A Study of Multi-frequency Polarization Pulse Profiles of Millisecond Pulsars
• The NANOGrav Nine-Year Data Set: Excess Noise in Millisecond Pulsar Arrival Times
• Pulsars and Gravity
• Modelling and mitigating refractive propagation effects in precision pulsar timing observations
• Extreme Scattering Events Towards Two Young Pulsars
• A 24-Hour Global Campaign To Assess Precision Timing of the Millisecond Pulsar J1713+0747
• Variability, polarimetry, and timing properties of single pulses from PSR J1713+0747 using the Large European Array for Pulsars
• Wide-band Profile Domain Pulsar Timing Analysis
• Bayesian estimation of non-Gaussianity in pulsar timing analysis
• Generative pulsar timing analysis
• Noise in pulsar timing arrays
• Observing Pulsars with a Phased Array Feed at the Parkes Telescope
• VLA Observations of Single Pulses from the Galactic Center Magnetar
• A Bayesian method for pulsar template generation
• Improving Pulsar Timing Precision with Single Pulses
• Two radio-emission mechanisms in PSR J0901-4624