No Pulsar Detected in Reprocessed Archival Parkes Observations of SNR 1987A

TL;DR

This study reprocessed archival radio observations of SNR 1987A to search for pulsar signals, setting upper limits on possible pulsar luminosity but finding no evidence of a pulsar.

Contribution

It provides the first comprehensive reanalysis of archival data with updated methods, establishing new flux and luminosity limits for a potential pulsar in SNR 1987A.

Findings

No convincing pulsar candidate signals detected.

Luminosity limits comparable to young energetic pulsars.

Cannot rule out a pulsar with similar luminosity to known young pulsars.

Abstract

We have reprocessed the available archival radio pulsar search observations of SNR 1987A taken with the Parkes 64-m telescope, some of which have not been previously published. We conducted a standard periodicity search on these data as well as a single pulse search at a range of dispersion measures. We found no convincing candidate signals, and we calculate flux density, luminosity, and single pulse fluence limits from these observations. The derived luminosity limits are comparable to the luminosities of three young, energetic pulsars (the Crab pulsar, PSR B0540$-$69, and PSR J0537$-$6910), and so we cannot rule out the existence of a pulsar in SNR 1987A with a similar radio luminosity.