Narrow-band giant pulses from the Crab pulsar

TL;DR

This study identifies a rare subpopulation of narrow-band giant pulses from the Crab pulsar, suggesting a potential link to Fast Radio Bursts due to similar spectral features.

Contribution

Introduces a new spectral-fitting technique to detect narrow-band giant pulses, revealing their possible intrinsic origin and connection to FRBs.

Findings

6 narrow-band giant pulses detected

Narrow-band features similar to FRBs observed

Supports intrinsic emission mechanism hypothesis

Abstract

We used a new spectral-fitting technique to identify a subpopulation of 6 narrow-band giant pulses from the Crab pulsar out of a total of 1578. These giant pulses were detected in 77 minutes of observations with the 46-m dish at the Algonquin Radio Observatory at 400-800 MHz. The narrow-band giant pulses consist of both main- and inter-pulses, thereby being more likely to be caused by an intrinsic emission mechanism as opposed to a propagation effect. Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) have demonstrated similar narrow-band features while only little has been observed in the giant pulses of pulsars. We report the narrow-band giant pulses with $\Delta \nu / \nu$ on the order of 0.1, which is close to the value of 0.05 reported for the repeater FRB 20190711A. Hence, the connection between FRBs and giant pulses of pulsars is further established.