Title:	Variations of the harmonic components of the X-ray pulse profile of PSR B1509–58
Authors:	Pradhan, Pragati Paul, Biswajit Raichur, Harsha Paul, B.C.
Issue Date:	Jan-2015
Publisher:	IOP Publishing Ltd.
Citation:	Research in Astronomy and Astrophysics, 2015, Vol.15, p28-36
Abstract:	We used the Fourier decomposition technique to investigate the stability of the X-ray pulse profile of a young pulsar PSR B1509–58 by studying the relative amplitudes and phase differences of its harmonic components with respect to the fundamental using data from the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer. Like most young rotation powered pulsars, PSR B1509–58 has a high spin down rate. It also has less timing noise, allowing accurate measurement of higher order frequency derivatives which in turn helps in the study of the physics of pulsar spin down. Detailed investigation of pulse profiles over the years will help us establish any possible connection between the timing characteristics and the high energy emission characteristics for this pulsar. Furthermore, the study of pulse profiles of short period X-ray pulsars can also be useful when used as a means of interplanetary navigation. The X-ray pulse profile of this source has been analyzed for 15 yr (1996–2011). The long term average amplitudes of the first, second and third harmonics (and their standard deviation for individual measurements) compared to the fundamental are 36.9% (1.7%), 13.4% (1.9%) and 9.4% (1.8%) respectively. Similarly, the phases of the three harmonics (and standard deviations) with respect to the fundamental are 0.36 (0.06), 1.5 (0.2) and 2.5 (0.3) radian respectively. We do not find any significant variation of the harmonic components of the pulse profile in comparison to the fundamental.
Description:	Restricted Access. An open-access version is available at arXiv.org (one of the alternative locations)
URI:	http://hdl.handle.net/2289/6189
ISSN:	1674-4527
Alternative Location:	http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015RAA....15...28P http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.0066 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1674-4527/15/1/003
Copyright:	2015 IOP Publishing Ltd.
Appears in Collections:	Research Papers (A&A)

Items in RRI Digital Repository are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.