According to Xinhua, a group of Chinese researchers have discovered a pulsar that is likely to simultaneously show three major emission variations. This result is contrary to previous observations when most pulsars only recorded one or two radiation variations.
The pulsar with code PSR J0846-3533 has never been observed and analyzed comprehensively before. The research team of the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (XAO), under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, used ultra-wide bandwidth data from the 64 m Parkes radio telescope in Australia to collect and analyze tens of thousands of single pulsar signals.
The results showed that this pulsar simultaneously showed three main forms of emission variations including nulling, mode switching, and periodic amplitude modulation.
In which, the pulsar may temporarily stop emitting radio waves, similar to a lighthouse suddenly turning off its lights. The pulse shape also changes rapidly between emission modes. In a normal state, the signal part behind is brighter, while in another mode, the central component becomes prominent.
The researchers also noted that the brightness of pulsars fluctuates in a stable cycle, completing a variational cycle after each two revolutions. This phenomenon was consistently observed in two three-year intervals of tracking.
Mr. Wen Zhigang - a researcher at the Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, said that the phenomenon of mode transition and emission elimination is related to the rearrangement of electric current in the magnetosphere of pulsars. Meanwhile, periodic amplitude modulation reflects the repeated reconstruction of the particle acceleration mechanism and plasma emission efficiency.
According to the research team, analyzing the extremely strong magnetic field environment of neutron stars from many angles has provided important observational evidence, contributing to perfecting magnetic field dynamics models of pulsars.
