Observations of Giant Pulses from Pulsar PSR B0950+08 using LWA1

Abstract

We report the detection of giant pulse emission from PSR B0950+08 in 24 hours of observations made at 39.4 MHz, with a bandwidth of 16 MHz, using the first station of the Long Wavelength Array, LWA1. We detected 119 giant pulses from PSR B0950+08 (at its dispersion measure), which we define as having SNRs at least 10 times larger than for the mean pulse in our data set. These 119 pulses are 0.035% of the total number of pulse periods in the 24 hours of observations. The rate of giant pulses is about 5.0 per hour. The cumulative distribution of pulse strength $S$ is a steep power law, $N(>S)\propto S^{-4.7}$, but much less steep than would be expected if we were observing the tail of a Gaussian distribution of normal pulses. We detected no other transient pulses in a dispersion measure range from 1 to 90 pc cm${}^{-3}$, in the beam tracking PSR B0950+08. The giant pulses have a narrower temporal width than the mean pulse (17.8 ms, on average, vs. 30.5 ms). The pulse widths are consistent with a previously observed weak dependence on observing frequency, which may be indicative of a deviation from a Kolmogorov spectrum of electron density irregularities along the line of sight. The rate and strength of these giant pulses is less than has been observed at $\sim$100 MHz. Additionally, the mean (normal) pulse flux density we observed is less than at $\sim$100 MHz. These results suggest this pulsar is weaker and produces less frequent giant pulses at 39 MHz than at 100 MHz.

arXiv comment27 pages, 12 figures, typos corrected

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• Spectral Flattening at Low Frequencies in Crab Giant Pulses
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• Dual-frequency single-pulse study of PSR B0950+08
• Long-term study of extreme giant pulses from PSR B0950+08 with AARTFAAC
• Detection of the fine structure of the pulsar J0953+0755 radio emission in the decametre wave range
• Wide-Band Spectra of Giant Radio Pulses from the Crab Pulsar
• The two emission states of PSR B1534+12
• The radio signal of PSR B0950+08 is detected over the whole pulse phase
• Simultaneous Observations of Giant Pulses from Pulsar PSR B0950+08 at 42 MHz and 74 MHz
• Discovery of a Pulsar Wind Nebula around B0950+08 with the ELWA
• A search for pulsars in subdwarf B binary systems and discovery of giant-pulse emitting PSR J0533-4524
• Low-frequency observations of giant pulses from ordinary pulsars
• Cosmological Perturbations without Inflation
• New Features of the Pulsar B0950+08 Radiation at the Frequency of 111MHz