Peculiar nulling in PSR J1738-2330

TL;DR

This paper reports on the peculiar nulling behavior of PSR J1738-2330, a pulsar exhibiting a periodic null-burst cycle with significant flux density variation, based on GMRT observations at 325 MHz.

Contribution

It presents the first detailed analysis of the nulling behavior of PSR J1738-2330, revealing a periodic null-burst cycle and quantifying its nulling fraction and flux variation.

Findings

Pulsar PSR J1738-2330 shows a periodic null-burst cycle.

Nulling fraction is estimated to be up to 90%.

Flux density drops by a factor of 94 during nulls.

Abstract

Several pulsars show sudden cessation of pulsed emission, which is known as nulling. The number of known nulling pulsars has not been significantly enhanced in the last decade, although the pulsar population has more than doubled following the Parkes multi-beam pulsar survey. A systematic follow-up study of the new pulsars, discovered in this survey, is being carried out by us at 325-MHz with GMRT. The peculiar nulling behaviour of PSR J1738-2330, observed as a part of this 325-MHz GMRT survey, is reported in this paper. The pulsar appears to show a periodic null-burst cycle with an upper limit to nulling fraction, of about 90 percent. The pulsed flux density declines by a factor 94 during the nulled pulses in this pulsar.