X-ray Timing Analysis of Six Pulsars Using ESA's XMM-Newton Observatory

TL;DR

This study analyzes six isolated pulsars using ESA's XMM-Newton observatory to assess the timing accuracy of the EPIC-pn camera, finding it to be around 1e-8, which supports its calibration utility.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed assessment of the relative timing accuracy of the EPIC-pn camera across multiple pulsars with different profiles.

Findings

Timing accuracy of EPIC-pn camera is approximately 1×10⁻⁸.

Validated the stability of pulsar timing measurements with XMM-Newton.

Demonstrated the suitability of selected pulsars for calibration purposes.

Abstract

We present results of a timing analysis of various isolated pulsars using ESA's \emph{XMM-Newton} observatory. Isolated pulsars are useful for calibration purposes because of their stable emission. We have analyzed six pulsars with different pulse profiles in a range of periods between 15 and 200 ms. All observations were made using the \emph{EPIC-pn camera} in its faster modes (Small window, Timing and Burst modes). We investigate the relative timing accuracy of the camera by comparing the pulse periods determined from the \emph{EPIC-pn camera} observations with those from radio observations. As a result of our analysis we conclude that the relative timing accuracy of the \emph{EPIC-pn camera} is of the order of $1\times 10^{-8}$.