Parkes transient events: II. Pulsar single pulses database containing raw data segment

TL;DR

This paper presents a new, compact database of raw single-pulse data from 363 pulsars observed over four years, enabling detailed emission physics analysis and algorithm development.

Contribution

It introduces PTD II, a comprehensive, raw-data preserving pulsar single-pulse database with tools for analysis, improving upon previous datasets.

Findings

Diverse fluence distributions observed, including log-normal and Gaussian.

Significant evolution in pulsar emission characteristics over time.

Event rate variations span two orders of magnitude in some pulsars.

Abstract

We have re-processed single pulse candidates from the first four years (1997-2001) of the Parkes Multibeam receiver system observations, creating a new Parkes transient database (PTD II) that contains 165,592 single pulses from 363 known pulsars. Unlike previous databases, PTD II preserves the critical raw data segments of each detected pulse, enabling detailed analyses of emission physics while maintaining a compact size of only 1.5 GB. The database employs a sqlite3 structure organising pulsar metadata, observation files, and pulse events with their raw data stored in binary format. We provide processing tools for extracting and analysing single-pulse data, enabling fluence fitting and statistical analysis. Our pulsars exhibit diverse fluence distributions, such as log-normal, Gaussian, and unimodal. Temporal analyses reveal significant evolution in emission characteristics of several pulsars, including event rate variations spanning two orders of magnitude in PSR J1602-5100 and PSR J0942-5552. Beyond supporting fundamental pulsar emission studies, the database serves as a valuable training resource for developing new single-pulse detection algorithms in the presence of radio frequency interference.