The MeerKAT Telescope as a Pulsar Facility: System verification and early science results from MeerTime
M. Bailes, A. Jameson, F. Abbate, E. D. Barr, N. D. R. Bhat, L., Bondonneau, M. Burgay, S. J. Buchner, F. Camilo, D. J. Champion, I. Cognard,, P. B. Demorest, P. C. C. Freire, T. Gautam, M. Geyer, J. M. Griessmeier, L., Guillemot, H. Hu, F. Jankowski, S. Johnston

TL;DR
The MeerKAT telescope has been verified as an excellent pulsar observation facility, demonstrating high precision timing, diverse pulsar science results, and promising future capabilities for large-scale pulsar monitoring.
Contribution
This paper presents the first system verification and early science results from MeerKAT's pulsar processor, showcasing its exceptional timing precision and scientific potential.
Findings
Successful observations of double pulsar J0737-3039A
Detection of giant pulses from LMC pulsar PSR J0540-6919
Nulling behavior identified in PSR J0633-2015
Abstract
We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly-commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain (~2.8 K/Jy) low-system temperature (~18 K at 20cm) radio array that currently operates from 580-1670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar J0737-3039A, pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars from a single 2.5h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR J0540-6919, and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633-2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing…
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