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Continued Improvements to Pulsar Detection System

6 October 2004

Grand Rapids Michigan

Summary

This is a report on improvements made for Version 22 of the Pulsar Detection System,

more information on the Pulsar Detection system can be found in the yearly Progress report on the web page (www.vansplace.net/grro/index.htm). The primary goal of this improvement is to be able to resolve the shape of the pulse of any give pulsar.

Background

We continue to make improvements to the pulsar detection system and its two primary programs RA_21B (Data Collection) and RA_PSR22 (Detection Processing). We will continue refine these two programs wit a release planned for some time next spring.

RA_21B now supports a maximum data collection rate of 0.055 seconds this is short of the planned max rate of 0.010 seconds, this is due to the limitation of the resolution of real time clocks in Windows 9X computer platforms. We will continue to look for possible methods to make improvements in this area. Noise problems in the program RA_PSR22 have been identified and fixed. The plots listed in this report show this improvement; in addition the program now supports the current max data rate of 0.055 seconds.

Pulsar B1919+21 (PSR1316)

This is the first pulsar discovered 1967, it continues to be our main test pulsar due to its location in the sky and time of day when it is found in the beam of our radio telescope.

It spins at a rate of 1.3373 seconds.

Pulsar B1237+25 (PSR328)

This is a 1.3824 second pulsar; this pulsar is used to check the performance of the detection system when other noise sources are in the same part of the sky (i.e. the sun)

Pulsar B0531+21 and B0525+21 (PSR88)

Pulsar B0531+21 is the Crab Nebula pulsar, this is the fastest pulsar we have observed to date (0.0331 seconds). A second pulsar can be seen in the data this is B0525+21 which is located (in our sky) near the Crab Nebula pulsar, this pulsar is the slowest pulsar we have observed to date (3.7454 seconds).