A Gaussian Mixture Model for Nulling Pulsars

Abstract

The phenomenon of pulsar nulling -- where pulsars occasionally turn off for one or more pulses -- provides insight into pulsar-emission mechanisms and the processes by which pulsars turn off when they cross the "death line." However, while ever more pulsars are found that exhibit nulling behavior, the statistical techniques used to measure nulling are biased, with limited utility and precision. In this paper we introduce an improved algorithm, based on Gaussian mixture models, for measuring pulsar nulling behavior. We demonstrate this algorithm on a number of pulsars observed as part of a larger sample of nulling pulsars, and show that it performs considerably better than existing techniques, yielding better precision and no bias. We further validate our algorithm on simulated data. Our algorithm is widely applicable to a large number of pulsars even if they do not show obvious nulls. Moreover, it can be used to derive nulling probabilities of nulling for individual pulses, which can be used for in-depth studies.

7 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication by AAS journals

References in corpus (5)

• PSRCHIVE and PSRFITS An Open Approach to Radio Pulsar Data Storage and Analysis
• Pulsar Nulling and Mode Changing
• The Green Bank Northern Celestial Cap Pulsar Survey - I: Survey Description, Data Analysis, and Initial Results
• The Green Bank Telescope 350 MHz Drift-scan Survey II: Data Analysis and the Timing of 10 New Pulsars, Including a Relativistic Binary
• The Pulsar Search Collaboratory: Discovery and Timing of Five New Pulsars

Cited by in corpus (8)

• A Pilot Study of Nulling in 22 Pulsars Using Mixture Modeling
• Membership analysis and 3D kinematics of the star-forming complex around Trumpler 37 using Gaia-DR3
• The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts V: Recent Discoveries and Full Timing Solutions
• The Discovery of Nulling and Mode Switching Pulsars with CHIME/Pulsar
• Discovery and follow-up of a quasiperiodically nulling and sub-pulse drifting pulsar with the Murchison Widefield Array
• Investigation of individual pulse emission behaviours from pulsar J1741$-$0840
• Study of central light distribution in nearby early-type galaxies hosting nuclear star clusters
• Constraining the selection corrected luminosity function and total pulse count for radio transients