Searching for extragalactic pulsars with MeerKAT
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, with a very stable rotation, making them excellent laboratories for astrophysical research. The field of pulsar research is ever expanding, with the discovery of new unique sources with applications ranging from studying the evolution of supermassive black holes in the early Universe to testing theories of gravity. This project will make use of data from the recently completed MeerKAT telescope in South Africa, to search for previously unknown pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds. The Magellanic Clouds are two dwarf galaxies, located close to the Milky Way and the only external galaxies where pulsars have been discovered so far. The excellent sensitivity of the MeerKAT array implies that a full survey of the clouds should discover eight times as many pulsars as are currently known.
In this project, you will search the MeerKAT data using so-called acceleration searching to account for changes in the pulse period of pulsars in close binary systems, and sift through the large number of expected pulsar candidates using machine learning techniques
In this project, you will search the MeerKAT data using so-called acceleration searching to account for changes in the pulse period of pulsars in close binary systems, and sift through the large number of expected pulsar candidates using machine learning techniques
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
Benjamin Stappers (Primary Supervisor) | |
Emma Carli (Student) |
Publications
Carli E
(2022)
TRAPUM upper limits on pulsed radio emission for SMC X-ray pulsar J0058-7218
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Cotton W
(2024)
The MeerKAT 1.3 GHz Survey of the Small Magellanic Cloud
in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Men Y
(2023)
PulsarX: A new pulsar searching package I. A high performance folding program for pulsar surveys
in Astronomy & Astrophysics
Studentship Projects
Project Reference | Relationship | Related To | Start | End | Student Name |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
ST/T506291/1 | 30/09/2019 | 29/09/2023 | |||
2487536 | Studentship | ST/T506291/1 | 30/09/2020 | 29/06/2024 | Emma Carli |