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By observing radiation during and between pulses in detail, several conclusions can be drawn about the structure of the material on and around the surface of the pulse, as well as the configuration of the magnetic field. During decades of pulsars research, several models have been developed that explain the properties of known pulsars. But now an object has been discovered whose pulses cannot be explained with the available models.
The PSR B1929 + 10 pulsar, about 360 parsecs from us, is one of the closest to Earth. It rotates around its axis in 0.2225 seconds and two flashes are observed during a rotation: the main pulse and the intermediate pulse.
Radio observations from September 2018 to November 2019 captured more than 20,000 pulsar flashes, enabling unprecedented accurate analysis of their evolution over time. It turned out that the intensity of both flashes varied over a period twelve times greater than the period of rotation. This is not unexpected, such amplitude modulation is observed in more than one pulsar.
The correlation between the main and intermediate pulse modulations is also normal: they both intensify almost simultaneously. But it is not exactly the same: the amplitude of the main pulse increases approximately one period later than the intermediate one.
Even more interesting is that the time interval between the main and intermediate pulses is the same regardless of the frequency of the radio waves at which the observations are made. This situation is usually observed in the so-called “unipolar” case, where both pulses emanate from a magnetic pole. But then one would expect the modulation to be exactly the same for both pulses. Therefore, it is not yet possible to explain the properties of PSR B1929 + 10.
Results of the arXiv study.
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