Detection of quasi-periodic micro-structure in three millisecond pulsars with the Large European Array for Pulsars

TL;DR

This study detects and analyzes quasi-periodic micro-structure in three millisecond pulsars using high-resolution radio data, revealing polarization characteristics and potential links to fast radio bursts.

Contribution

First detection of quasi-periodic micro-structure in millisecond pulsars with detailed polarization and periodicity analysis using the Large European Array for Pulsars.

Findings

Micro-structure occurrence rate is consistent across different pulse flux densities.

Micro-structure often exhibits high linear polarization.

Micro-structure properties may relate to fast radio burst emission morphology.

Abstract

We report on the detection of quasi-periodic micro-structure in three millisecond pulsars (MSPs), PSRs J1022+1001, J2145-0750 and J1744-1134, using high time resolution data acquired with the Large European Array for Pulsars at a radio frequency of 1.4 GHz. The occurrence rate of quasi-periodic micro-structure is consistent among pulses with different peak flux densities. Using an auto-correlation analysis, we measure the periodicity and width of the micro-structure in these three pulsars. The detected micro-structure from PSRs J1022+1001 and J1744-1134 is often highly linearly polarised. In PSR J1022+1001, the linear polarisation position angles of micro-structure pulses are in general flat with a small degree of variation. Using these results, we further examine the frequency and rotational period dependency of micro-structure properties established in previous work, along with the angular beaming and temporal modulation models that explains the appearance of micro-structure. We also discuss a possible link of micro-structure to the properties of some of the recently discovered fast radio bursts which exhibit a very similar emission morphology.