# One year of monitoring the Vela pulsar using a Phased Array Feed

## TL;DR

This study demonstrates the long-term stability and effectiveness of Phased Array Feed technology for pulsar monitoring, including precise timing and glitch detection over a year.

## Contribution

It provides the first long-term assessment of PAF beam stability and its application to pulsar timing and glitch observation.

## Key findings

- PAF beam-weights are stable within 1% over three weeks.
- Pulsars can be accurately timed using PAF technology.
- Detected and studied the 2016 glitch in the Vela pulsar.

## Abstract

We have observed the Vela pulsar for one year using a Phased Array Feed (PAF) receiver on the 12-metre antenna of the Parkes Test-Bed Facility. These observations have allowed us to investigate the stability of the PAF beam-weights over time, to demonstrate that pulsars can be timed over long periods using PAF technology and to detect and study the most recent glitch event that occurred on 12 December 2016. The beam-weights are shown to be stable to 1% on time scales on the order of three weeks. We discuss the implications of this for monitoring pulsars using PAFs on single dish telescopes.