Precise optical timing of PSR J1023+0038, the first millisecond pulsar detected with Aqueye+ in Asiago

Abstract

We report the first detection of an optical millisecond pulsar with the fast photon counter Aqueye+ in Asiago. This is an independent confirmation of the detection of millisecond pulsations from PSR J1023+0038 obtained with SiFAP at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo. We observed the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 with Aqueye+ mounted at the Copernicus telescope in January 2018. Highly significant pulsations were detected. The rotational period is in agreement with the value extrapolated from the X-ray ephemeris, while the time of passage at the ascending node is shifted by $11.55\pm 0.08$ s from the value predicted using the orbital period from the X-rays. An independent optical timing solution is derived over a baseline of a few days, that has an accuracy of $\sim 0.007$ in pulse phase ($\sim 12$ $\mu$s in time). This level of precision is needed to derive an accurate coherent timing solution for the pulsar and to search for possible phase shifts between the optical and X-ray pulses using future simultaneous X-ray and optical observations.

6 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Letters

References in corpus (12)

• The NumPy array: a structure for efficient numerical computation
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• Tempo2, a new pulsar timing package. II: The timing model and precision estimates
• A Radio Pulsar/X-ray Binary Link
• X-ray states of redback millisecond pulsars
• Timing Observations of PSR J1023+0038 During a Low-Mass X-ray Binary State
• NuSTAR observations and broadband spectral energy distribution modeling of the millisecond pulsar binary PSR J1023+0038
• Search for transitions between states in redbacks and black widows using seven years of Fermi-LAT observations
• High-energy emissions from the gamma-ray binary LS 5039
• Variable polarisation and Doppler tomography of PSR J1023+0038 - Evidence for the magnetic propeller during flaring?
• Aqueye+: a new ultrafast single photon counter for optical high time resolution astrophysics
• A Search for Very High-Energy Gamma Rays from the Missing Link Binary Pulsar J1023+0038 with VERITAS

Cited by in corpus (13)

• Transitional millisecond pulsars
• Investigating the origin of optical and X-ray pulsations of the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038
• Spin-down rate of the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 in the optical band with Aqueye+
• New technique for determining a pulsar period: Waterfall principal component analysis
• Development of an optical photon-counting imager with a monolithic Geiger APD array
• Multiwavelength Evidence for Two New Candidate Transitional Millisecond Pulsars in the Sub-luminous Disk State: 4FGL J0639.1--8009 and 4FGL J1824.2+1231
• X-ray study of high-and-low luminosity modes and peculiar low-soft-and-hard activity in the transitional pulsar XSS J12270-4859
• Optical photon-counting observation of the Crab pulsar with Kanata telescope using prototype IMONY
• Characterization of a high efficiency silicon photomultiplier for millisecond to sub-microsecond astrophysical transient searches
• Measuring accretion disc properties in the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038 using XMM-Newton, NuSTAR, NICER and Chandra
• Evidence for optical pulsations from a redback millisecond pulsar
• False Alarm Rate based Statistical Detection Limit for Astronomical Photon Detectors
• There and back again: Mysterious optical pulse profile behavior of the transitional millisecond pulsar PSR J1023+0038