A new pulsar candidate in 47 Tucanae discovered with MeerKAT imaging

TL;DR

Using MeerKAT imaging of 47 Tucanae, the study identifies known MSPs and discovers a new candidate source with properties similar to MSPs, highlighting variability and spectral features for pulsar detection.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel imaging-based method to identify MSPs and reports a new candidate pulsar in 47 Tucanae using spectral and temporal analysis.

Findings

20 known MSPs detected in MeerKAT images

Identification of a new pulsar candidate based on spectral and temporal properties

Variability and spectral fit errors are key indicators for MSP detection

Abstract

MeerKAT imaging of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (47 Tuc) reveals 1.28 GHz continuum emission at the locations of 20 known millisecond pulsars (MSPs). We use time series and spectral imaging to investigate the image-domain characteristics of the MSPs, and search for previously unknown sources of interest. The MSPs exhibit a range of differences in their temporal and spectral properties compared the general background radio source population. Temporal variability differs strongly from pulsar to pulsar, some appearing to vary randomly on 15 min timescales, others varying coherently by factors of >10 on timescales of hours. The error in the typical power law fit to the spectrum emerges as a powerful parameter for indentifying the MSPs. This behaviour is likely due to differing diffractive scintillation conditions along the sight lines to the MSPs. One MSP exhibits tentative periodic variations that are consistent with modulation due the orbit of an eclipsing binary system. One radio source has spectro-temporal properites closely resembling those of the MSP population in the cluster, and we report its position as a candidate new MSP, or alternatively an interferometric localisation of one of six MSPs which do not yet have an accurate position from the timing solutions.