Timing of 29 Pulsars Discovered in the PALFA Survey

TL;DR

This paper reports the discovery and detailed timing analysis of 29 new pulsars from the PALFA survey, revealing diverse properties including young pulsars, binary systems, and glitch behaviors, enhancing understanding of pulsar populations.

Contribution

First high-precision timing of 29 pulsars from PALFA, including new insights into glitch recovery and associations with supernova remnants and gamma-ray sources.

Findings

Identification of young pulsars associated with supernova remnants.

Observation of large glitches with long recovery timescales.

Discovery of a binary pulsar with a 199-day orbit.

Abstract

We report on the discovery and timing observations of 29 distant long-period pulsars discovered in the ongoing Arecibo PALFA pulsar survey. Following discovery with the Arecibo Telescope, confirmation and timing observations of these pulsars over several years at Jodrell Bank Observatory have yielded high-precision positions and measurements of rotation and radiation properties. We have used multi-frequency data to measure the interstellar scattering properties of some of these pulsars. Most of the pulsars have properties that mirror those of the previously known pulsar population, although four show some notable characteristics. PSRs J1907+0631 and J1925+1720 are young and are associated with supernova remnants or plerionic nebulae: J1907+0631 lies close to the center of SNR G40.5-0.5, while J1925+1720 is coincident with a high-energy Fermi gamma-ray source. One pulsar, J1932+1500, is in a surprisingly eccentric, 199-day binary orbit with a companion having a minimum mass of 0.33 solar masses. Several of the sources exhibit timing noise, and two, PSRs J0611+1436 and J1907+0631, have both suffered large glitches, but with very different post-glitch rotation properties. In particular, the rotational period of PSR J0611+1436 will not recover to its pre-glitch value for about 12 years, a far greater recovery timescale than seen following any other large glitches.