The Jodrell Bank Glitch Catalogue: 106 new rotational glitches in 70 pulsars

TL;DR

This paper reports 106 new pulsar glitches observed by the Jodrell Bank program, analyzes their distribution and relation to pulsar properties, and supports superfluid vortex unpinning models of glitches.

Contribution

It presents the largest set of newly detected pulsar glitches and provides a comprehensive analysis of their statistical properties and correlations with pulsar characteristics.

Findings

Younger pulsars tend to have larger glitches.

Glitch amplitudes follow a two-Gaussian distribution.

Pulsars with specific spin-down rates show a mean reversal of 1.8% in spin-down.

Abstract

Pulsar glitches are rapid spin-up events that occur in the rotation of neutron stars, providing a valuable probe into the physics of the interiors of these objects. Long-term monitoring of a large number of pulsars facilitates the detection of glitches and the robust measurements of their parameters. The Jodrell Bank pulsar timing programme regularly monitors more than 800 radio pulsars and has accrued, in some cases, over 50 years of timing history on individual objects. In this paper we present 106 new glitches in 70 radio pulsars as observed up to the end of 2018. For 70% of these pulsars, the event we report is its only known glitch. For each new glitch we provide measurements of its epoch, amplitude and any detected changes to the spin-down rate of the star. Combining these new glitches with those listed in the Jodrell Bank glitch catalogue we analyse a total sample of 543 glitches in 178 pulsars. We model the distribution of glitch amplitudes and spin-down rate changes using a mixture of two Gaussian components. We corroborate the known dependence of glitch rate and activity on pulsar spin-down rates and characteristic ages, and show that younger pulsars tend to exhibit larger glitches. Pulsars whose spin-down rates between $10^{-14}$ Hz s$^{-1}$ and $10^{-10.5}$ Hz s$^{-1}$ show a mean reversal of 1.8% of their spin-down as a consequence of glitches. Our results are qualitatively consistent with the superfluid vortex unpinning models of pulsar glitches.