Arecibo Pulsar Survey Using ALFA: Probing Radio Pulsar Intermittency And Transients

We present radio transient search algorithms, results, and statistics from the ongoing Arecibo Pulsar ALFA (PALFA) survey of the Galactic plane. We have discovered seven objects through a search for isolated dispersed pulses. All of these objects are Galactic and have measured periods between 0.4 an...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2009-10, Vol.703 (2), p.2259-2274
Main Authors: Deneva, J. S, Cordes, J. M, McLaughlin, M. A, Nice, D. J, Lorimer, D. R, Crawford, F, Bhat, N. D. R, Camilo, F, Champion, D. J, Freire, P. C. C, Edel, S, Kondratiev, V. I, Hessels, J. W. T, Jenet, F. A, Kasian, L, Kaspi, V. M, Kramer, M, Lazarus, P, Ransom, S. M, Stairs, I. H, Stappers, B. W, van Leeuwen, J, Brazier, A, Venkataraman, A, Zollweg, J. A, Bogdanov, S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
ALGORITHMS
Astronomy
ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY
CLASSIFICATION
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
GALAXIES
MATHEMATICAL LOGIC
MATHEMATICS
PERIODICITY
PULSARS
PULSES
STATISTICS
TRANSIENTS
VARIATIONS
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Summary:We present radio transient search algorithms, results, and statistics from the ongoing Arecibo Pulsar ALFA (PALFA) survey of the Galactic plane. We have discovered seven objects through a search for isolated dispersed pulses. All of these objects are Galactic and have measured periods between 0.4 and 4.7 s. One of the new discoveries has a duty cycle of 0.01%, smaller than that of any other radio pulsar. We discuss the impact of selection effects on the detectability and classification of intermittent sources, and compare the efficiencies of periodicity and single-pulse (SP) searches for various pulsar classes. For some cases we find that the apparent intermittency is likely to be caused by off-axis detection or a short time window that selects only a few bright pulses and favors detection with our SP algorithm. In other cases, the intermittency appears to be intrinsic to the source. No transients were found with DMs large enough to require that they originate from sources outside our Galaxy. Accounting for the on-axis gain of the ALFA system, as well as the low gain but large solid-angle coverage of far-out sidelobes, we use the results of the survey so far to place limits on the amplitudes and event rates of transients of arbitrary origin.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1088/0004-637X/703/2/2259