A Long-term study of three rotating radio transients

TL;DR

This long-term study of three RRATs reveals variations in pulse emission rates, a potential long-term increase in detection, and glitch behaviors that resemble magnetar activity, providing insights into RRAT emission mechanisms.

Contribution

It presents the longest timing observations of three RRATs, analyzing pulse rate variations, glitch properties, and possible magnetar-like behaviors, which advances understanding of RRAT emission and glitch phenomena.

Findings

Marginal long-term increase in pulse detection for two RRATs

Two orders of magnitude variation in pulse detection rates across epochs

Post-glitch behavior similar to magnetar activity in J1819-1458

Abstract

We present the longest-term timing study so far of three Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs) - J1819-1458, J1840-1419 and J1913+1330 - performed using the Lovell, Parkes and Green Bank telescopes over the past decade. We study long-term and short- term variations of the pulse emission rate from these RRATs and report a marginal indication of a long-term increase in pulse detection rate over time for PSR J1819-1458 and J1913+1330. For PSR J1913+1330, we also observe a two orders of magnitude variation in the observed pulse detection rates across individual epochs, which may constrain the models explaining the origin of RRAT pulses. PSR J1913+1330 is also observed to exhibit a weak persistent emission mode. We investigate the post-glitch timing properties of J1819-1458 (the only RRAT for which glitches are observed) and discuss the implications for possible glitch models. Its post-glitch over-recovery of the frequency derivative is magnetar-like and similar behaviour is only observed for two other pulsars, both of which have relatively high magnetic field strengths. Following the over-recovery we also observe that some fraction of the pre-glitch frequency derivative is gradually recovered.