The radio pulsar population of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Titus, N.; Toonen, Silvia; McBride, V. A.; Stappers, B. W.; Buckley, D.; Levin, Lina

doi:10.1093/mnras/staa662

Cited by 15 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 81 publications

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“…Our fiducial LMC mass is consistent with the measured solar system acceleration from Gaia EDR3 data (Klioner et al 2021). Ultimately, by using pulsar timing observations of pulsars within the Magellanic Clouds, we could directly constrain the potential of the Milky Way out to large distances, e.g., with the planned MeerKAT survey (Titus et al 2020). Until then, indirect measures of the mass of the Milky Way, such as those we have derived here by using the Magellanic Stream as a tracer of the potential depth of the Milky Way can provide useful guidance.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

A Dynamical Mass Estimate from the Magellanic Stream

Craig¹,

Chakrabarti²,

Baum³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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We present a model for the formation of the Magellanic Stream (MS) due to ram pressure stripping. We model the history of the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds in the recent cosmological past in a static Milky Way potential with diffuse halo gas, using observationally motivated orbits for the Magellanic Clouds derived from HST proper motions within the potential of the Milky Way. This model is able to reproduce the trailing arm but does not reproduce the leading arm feature, which is common for models of the stream formation that include ram pressure stripping effects. Our model produces a good match to observations (including the densities and line-of-sight velocities of the stream, as well as the positions and velocities of the satellites at present day) when we include a diffuse halo component for the Milky Way. From analyzing our grid of models, we find that there is a direct correlation between the observed stream length in our simulations and the mass of the Milky Way. For the observed MS length, the inferred Milky Way mass is 1.5 ± 0.3 × 10 12 𝑀 , which agrees closely with other independent measures of the Milky Way mass. We also discuss the MS in the context of HI streams in galaxy clusters, and find that the MS lies on the low-mass end of a continuum from Hickson groups to the Virgo cluster. As a tracer of the dynamical mass in the outer halo, the MS is a particularly valuable probe of the Milky Way's potential.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 78%

A Dynamical Mass Estimate from the Magellanic Stream

Craig¹,

Chakrabarti²,

Baum³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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“…Modern search techniques (whether Fourier transform or fast-folding based) are biased in favour of pulsars with narrow pulse profiles and against those with wider profiles (van Heerden et al 2017). As we only detect 1 pulsar per 1000 in the LMC/SMC system (Ridley & Lorimer 2010;Titus et al 2020) then it comes as no surprise to see that the majority have narrow profiles. Furthermore, the lack of pulsars with 𝐸 > 10 34 erg s −1 in the MCs (apart from PSR J0540-6919 which was not discovered in a blind survey), is likely because these pulsars tend to have wider profiles than their low 𝐸 counterparts (e.g.…”

Section: The Pulsarsmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…This could manifest itself as a difference in initial spin and magnetic properties of the MC pulsars. With only a small number of pulsars at our disposal this is difficult to test, albeit attempted by Titus et al (2020) for the SMC.…”

Section: The Pulsarsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT VII: Polarisation properties of pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds

Johnston,

Parthasarathy,

Main

et al. 2021

Preprint

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The Magellanic Clouds are the only external galaxies known to host radio pulsars. The dispersion and rotation measures of pulsars in the Clouds can aid in understanding their structure, and studies of the pulsars themselves can point to potential differences between them and their Galactic counterparts. We use the high sensitivity of the MeerKAT telescope to observe 17 pulsars in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds in addition to five foreground (Galactic) pulsars. We provide polarization profiles for 18 of these pulsars, improved measurements of their dispersion and rotation measures, and derive the mean parallel magnetic field along the lines of sight. The results are broadly in agreement with expectations for the structure and strength of the magnetic field in the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds. The Magellanic Cloud pulsars have profiles which are narrower than expected from the period-width relationship and we show this is due to selection effects in pulsar surveys rather than any intrinsic difference between the population of Galactic and Magellanic objects.

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“…Pulsars are rotating neutron stars that emit radio waves from their magnetic poles. Since their discovery five decades ago (Hewish et al 1968), more than 3000 have been discovered in our Galaxy, in globular clusters, and the neighbouring Magellanic Clouds 1 (Manchester et al 2005;Titus et al 2020;Ye et al 2019). Though pulsars have a very stable pulse profile over a timescale of hours, peculiar variations in pulsed emission have also been observed on the timescales of a single rotation period.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Multi-frequency study of the peculiar pulsars PSR B0919+06 and PSR B1859+07

Rajwade,

Perera,

Stappers

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Since their discovery more than 50 years ago, broadband radio studies of pulsars have generated a wealth of information about the underlying physics of radio emission. In order to gain some further insights into this elusive emission mechanism, we performed a multi-frequency study of two very well-known pulsars, PSR B0919+06 and PSR B1859+07. These pulsars show peculiar radio emission properties whereby the emission shifts to an earlier rotation phase before returning to the nominal emission phase in a few tens of pulsar rotations (also known as 'swooshes'). We confirm the previous claim that the emission during the swoosh is not necessarily absent at low frequencies and the single pulses during a swoosh show varied behaviour at 220 MHz. We also confirm that in PSR B0919+06, the pulses during the swoosh show a chromatic dependence of the maximum offset from the normal emission phase with the offset following a consistent relationship with observing frequency. We also observe that the flux density spectrum of the radio profile during the swoosh is inverted compared to the normal emission. For PSR B1859+07, we have discovered a new mode of emission in the pulsar that is potentially quasi-periodic with a different periodicity than is seen in its swooshes. We invoke an emission model previously proposed in the literature and show that this simple model can explain the macroscopic observed characteristics in both pulsars. We also argue that pulsars that exhibit similar variability on short timescales may have the same underlying emission mechanism.

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The radio pulsar population of the Small Magellanic Cloud

Cited by 15 publications

References 81 publications

A Dynamical Mass Estimate from the Magellanic Stream

A Dynamical Mass Estimate from the Magellanic Stream

The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT VII: Polarisation properties of pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds

Multi-frequency study of the peculiar pulsars PSR B0919+06 and PSR B1859+07

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