29 Glitches Detected at Urumqi Observatory

TL;DR

This study reports 29 pulsar glitches detected over six years at Urumqi Observatory, revealing diverse glitch behaviors, correlations with pulsar age and spin-down rate, and identifying new glitching pulsars.

Contribution

First detection of glitches in 12 pulsars and comprehensive analysis of glitch characteristics and their correlations with pulsar properties.

Findings

29 glitches detected in 19 pulsars

Glitch amplitudes range from 10^{-11} to 10^{-6}

Glitch activity correlates with pulsar age and spin-down rate

Abstract

Glitches detected in pulsar timing observations at the Nanshan radio telescope of Urumqi Observatory between 2002 July and 2008 December are presented. In total, 29 glitches were detected in 19 young pulsars, with this being the first detection of a glitch in 12 of these pulsars. Fractional glitch amplitudes range from a few parts in 10^{-11} to 3.9 x 10^{-6}. Three "slow" glitches are identified in PSRs J0631+1036, B1822-09 and B1907+10. Post-glitch recoveries differ greatly from pulsar to pulsar and for different glitches in the same pulsar. Most large glitches show some evidence for exponential post-glitch recovery on timescales of 100 -- 1000 days, but in some cases, e.g., PSR B1758-23, there is little or no recovery. Beside exponential recoveries, permanent increases in slowdown rate are seen for the two large glitches in PSRs B1800-21 and B1823-13. These and several other pulsars also show a linear increase in nudot following the partial exponential recovery, which is similar to the Vela pulsar post-glitch behaviour. Analysis of the whole sample of known glitches show that fractional glitch amplitudes are correlated with characteristic age with a peak at about 10^5 years, but there is a spread of two or three orders of magnitude at all ages. Glitch activity is positively correlated with spin-down rate, again with a wide spread of values.