The MeerKAT telescope as a pulsar facility: System verification and early science results from MeerTime - INSPIRE

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The MeerKAT telescope as a pulsar facility: System verification and early science results from MeerTime

M. Bailes
(
- Swinburne U., Ctr. Astrophys. Supercomput. and
- ARC, CoEPP, Australia
)
,
A. Jameson
(
- Swinburne U., Ctr. Astrophys. Supercomput. and
- ARC, CoEPP, Australia
)
,
F. Abbate
(
)
,
E.D. Barr
(
- Bonn, Max Planck Inst., Radioastron.
)
,
N.D.R. Bhat
(
- ICRAR, Perth
)

May 28, 2020

20 pages

Published in:

Publ.Astron.Soc.Austral. 37 (2020) e028

Published: Jul 15, 2020

e-Print:

2005.14366 [astro-ph.IM]

DOI:

10.1017/pasa.2020.19 (publication)

View in:

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Abstract: (Cambridge University Press)

We describe system verification tests and early science results from the pulsar processor (PTUSE) developed for the newly commissioned 64-dish SARAO MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. MeerKAT is a high-gain ( {\sim}2.8\,\mbox{K Jy}^{-1} ) low-system temperature ( {\sim}18\,\mbox{K at }20\,\mbox{cm} ) radio array that currently operates at 580–1 670 MHz and can produce tied-array beams suitable for pulsar observations. This paper presents results from the MeerTime Large Survey Project and commissioning tests with PTUSE. Highlights include observations of the double pulsar \mbox{J}0737{-}3039\mbox{A} , pulse profiles from 34 millisecond pulsars (MSPs) from a single 2.5-h observation of the Globular cluster Terzan 5, the rotation measure of Ter5O, a 420-sigma giant pulse from the Large Magellanic Cloud pulsar PSR \mbox{J}0540{-}6919 , and nulling identified in the slow pulsar PSR J0633–2015. One of the key design specifications for MeerKAT was absolute timing errors of less than 5 ns using their novel precise time system. Our timing of two bright MSPs confirm that MeerKAT delivers exceptional timing. PSR \mbox{J}2241{-}5236 exhibits a jitter limit of <4\,\mbox{ns h}^{-1} whilst timing of PSR \mbox{J}1909{-}3744 over almost 11 months yields an rms residual of 66 ns with only 4 min integrations. Our results confirm that the MeerKAT is an exceptional pulsar telescope. The array can be split into four separate sub-arrays to time over 1 000 pulsars per day and the future deployment of S-band (1 750–3 500 MHz) receivers will further enhance its capabilities.

Note:

20 pages, 16 Figures, 4 Tables, accepted for publication in PASA

instrumentation
pulsar processors
pulsar timing

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