Thirteen Recent Pulsars Discovered with MeerKAT

Utilizing the MeerKAT radio telescope, astronomers from the Max Planck Institution for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) in Bonn, Germany, and elsewhere have detected 13 current pulsars in the globular cluster Omega Centauri. The finding was detailed in a paper released in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Pulsars are greatly magnetized, rotating neutron stars emitting a beam of electromagnetic radiation. They are typically spotted in the form of short bursts of radio emission; nevertheless, some of them are also observed through optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray telescopes.

Currently, a team of astronomers led by MPIfR’s Weiwei Chen reports the discovery of current pulsars in Omega Centauri (also called as NGC 5139)– the biggest globular cluster in our galaxy, found some 17,000 light years away. To date, just 5 pulsars have been identified in this cluster.

The MeerKAT Radio Telescope

“We utilized the superior sensitivity of the MeerKAT radio telescope to look for pulsars in Omega Centauri … In this paper, we offered the discovery of 13 current pulsars in Omega Centauri, that more than tripled the population of known pulsars in this collection,” the scientists wrote.

The new pulsars (designated from PSR J1326 − 4728F to PSR J1326 − 4728R) were discovered within the core and between the core and half-light radius of Omega Centauri. All the new things can be classified as millisecond pulsars (MSPs) as they have rotation durations below thirty milliseconds (between 2.27 and 18.95 ms). 7 of them turned out to be binary systems, while the remaining 6 are isolated pulsars.

The pulsars reported in the research study have dispersion measures into the range of 94.27 pc/cm3. Regarding the orbital durations of the seven binaries, it was found that they are between roughly 0.094 and 1.18 days. The astronomers included that 6 binaries have very light companions as well as two of them have apparent eclipses.

The discovery

The discovery made by Chen’s group enhances the number of pulsars in Omega Centauri to eighteen and makes the pulsar populace of this cluster dominated by the isolated ones (ten pulsars). Furthermore, all the binary pulsars in this GC, with the exception of PSR J1326 − 4728Q, have extremely low-mass companions (with a mass smaller than 0.1 solar masses), common for the so-called “black widow” systems.

The paper’s writers hope to discover more pulsars in Omega Centauri as part of the ongoing Transient and Pulsars with MeerKAT (TRAPUM) survey.

“We also notice that future TRAPUM observations with UHF-band (550– 1100 MHz) and S-band (1750– 3500 MHz) receivers will very probably further increase the populace of known pulsars in Omega Centauri in all areas by probing various spectral windows,” the scientists wrote.

Read the original article on PHYS.

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