Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-4rdpn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-17T22:23:41.839Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Optical pulsars and polarimetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 June 2018

Andrew Shearer  and
Eoin O’ Connor
Andrew Shearer
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, School of Physics, NUI Galway Galway, Ireland email: [email protected]
Eoin O’ Connor
Affiliation:
Centre for Astronomy, School of Physics, NUI Galway Galway, Ireland email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Despite the early optical detection of the Crab pulsar in 1969, optical pulsars have become the poor cousin of the neutron star family. Only five normal pulsars have been observed to pulse in the optical waveband. A further three magnetars/SGRs have been detected in the optical/near IR. Optical pulsars are intrinsically faint with a first order luminosity, predicted by Pacini, to be proportional to P−10, where P is the pulsar’s period. Consequently they require both large telescopes, generally over-subscribed, and long exposure times, generally difficult to get. However optical observations have the benefit that polarisation and spectral observations are possible compared to X-ray and gamma-ray observations where polarisation measurements are limited. Over the next decade the number of optical pulsars should increase as optical detectors approach 100% quantum efficiency and as we move into the era of extremely large telescopes where limiting fluxes will be 30 to 100 times fainter compared to existing optical telescopes.

Keywords

stars: neutron(stars:) pulsars: general(stars:) pulsars: individual (Crab, Vela, Geminga, B0540-69, B0656+14)polarization
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 13 , Symposium S337: Pulsar Astrophysics the Next Fifty Years , September 2017 , pp. 191 - 194
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2018 

References

Ambrosino, F., Papitto, A., Stella, L., et al. 2017, Nature Astronomy, 1, 266CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cocke, W. J., Disney, M. J., & Muncaster, G. W., 1970, Nature, 227, 1327Google Scholar
Cocke, W. J., Disney, M. J., & Taylor, D. J., 1969, Nature, 221, 525Google Scholar
Collins, P., Kyne, G., Lara, D., et al. 2013, Experimental Astronomy, 36, 479Google Scholar
Collins, S., et al. 2012, New Horizons in Time Domain Astronomy, 285, 296Google Scholar
Davies, R., Schubert, J., Hartl, M., et al. 2016, SPIE, 9908, 99081ZGoogle Scholar
Finger, G., Baker, I., Alvarez, D., et al. 2016, SPIE, 9909, 990912Google Scholar
Gradari, S., Barbieri, M., Barbieri, C., et al. 2011, MNRAS, 412, 2689Google Scholar
Kern, B., Martin, C., Mazin, B., & Halpern, J. P., 2003, ApJ, 597, 1049Google Scholar
Middleditch, J., Pennypacker, C. R., & Burns, M. S., 1987, ApJ, 315, 142CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mignani, R. P., Moran, P., Shearer, A., et al. 2015, A&A, 583, A105Google Scholar
Mignani, R. P., 2011, Advances in Space Research, 47, 1281Google Scholar
Moran, P., Shearer, A., Mignani, R. P., et al. 2013, MNRAS, 433, 2564Google Scholar
Moran, P., Mignani, R. P., & Shearer, A., 2014, MNRAS, 445, 835Google Scholar
Naletto, G., Barbieri, C., Occhipinti, T., et al. 2009, A&A, 508, 531Google Scholar
Pacini, F., 1971, ApJ (Letters), 163, L17Google Scholar
Pacini, F., & Salvati, M., 1983, ApJ, 274, 369Google Scholar
Peterson, B. A., Murdin, P., Wallace, P., et al. 1978, Nature, 276, 475Google Scholar
Romani, R. W., Kargaltsev, O., & Pavlov, G. G., 2005, ApJ, 627, 383Google Scholar
Shearer, A., et al., 2012, Electromagnetic Radiation from Pulsars and Magnetars, 466, 11Google Scholar
Shearer, A., 2008, Astrophysics and Space Science Library, 351, 1Google Scholar
Shearer, A., Stappers, B., O’Connor, P., et al., 2003, Science, 301, 493Google Scholar
Shearer, A., Golden, A., Harfst, S., et al. 1998, A&A, 335, L21Google Scholar
Shearer, A., Redfern, R. M., Gorman, G., et al. 1997, ApJ (Letters), 487, L181CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Słowikowska, A., Kanbach, G., Kramer, M., & Stefanescu, A., 2009, MNRAS, 397, 103Google Scholar
Smith, F. G., Jones, D. H. P., Dick, J. S. B., & Pike, C. D., 1988, MNRAS, 233, 305Google Scholar
Strader, M. J., Johnson, M. D., Mazin, B. A., et al., 2013, ApJ (Letters), 779, L12Google Scholar
Wagner, S. J., & Seifert, W., 2000, IAU Col. 177: Pulsar Astronomy - 2000 and Beyond, 202, 315Google Scholar