STATISTICS OF PULSARS

Statistics is the field of mathematics in which we try to make sense of

large amounts of data. Since their discovery in 1967 pulsars have attracted a
lot of attention and hence as expected, large volumes of data have been
generated.

As we know pulsars are rapidly rotating neutron stars whose masses are
well within that predicted theoretically .In this section we present some of
the data collected by astrophysicists using some of the most sophisticated
observatories across the world. These statistics help us to get some idea
about pulsars their galactic distribution, population and birth rates

The pulsars listed here fall into the following categories:

 Low eccentricity binary pulsars in our galactic disk

 High eccentricity binary pulsars in our galactic disk
 Pulsars in globular clusters

After these tables there are pulse profiles of a few popular pulsars followed
by a figure showing the global distribution of pulsars.

Various parameters used in the tables are as follows

 P (ms): this is the period of the pulsars in millisecond i.e. the time

required by a pulsar to complete one revolution around its spin axis.

2.2
 τc : stands for Characteristic age of a pulsar .This is the approximate

period of a pulsar obtained from the spin down equation. It is obtained

by assuming that the spin period at birth is much shorter than its
present value

 B (Gauss) : The magnetic field of a pulsar expressed in logarithmic

scale.

 d [kilo parsec]:the distance of the pulsar from EARTH

 vt[km/s]:transverse speed

 Pb[days]: the period of the binary system.

 X[s] : semi-major axis measure in light seconds

 e : eccentricity of the binary system

 m2[Msun]: mass of the binary of the pulsar assuming the mass of the

pulsar to be 1.4 solar masses

 the letters ‘B’ and ‘J’ before the name of the Pulsars indicate the time

of their discovery .The ones ending with B are the older pulsars and
those ending with J are the more recently discovered ones.

2.3
 The following are the statistics of 9 high eccentricity (e>0.15) pulsars
present in our galactic disk

Name log
P [ms] logτc d[kpc] vt[km/s] Pb[days] x[s] e m2[Msun]
B
J1141-6545 393.898 6.2 12.1 3.20 ? 0.20 1.86 0.17 1.0
1.3
J1518+4904 40.935 10.3 9.0 0.70 27 8.63 20.04 0.25

B1259-63 47.762 5.5 11.5 4.60 ? 1236.72 1296.58 0.87 10.0

B1534+12 37.904 8.4 10.0 0.68 80 0.42 3.73 0.27 1.3

J1740-3052 570.309 5.5 12.6 10.8 ? 231.03 756.91 0.58 16

J1811-1736 104.182 8.9 10.1 5.94 ? 18.77 34.78 0.83 0.7

B1820-11 279.828 6.5 11.8 6.26 ? 357.76 200.67 0.79 0.7

B1913+16 59.030 8.0 10.4 7.13 100 0.32 2.34 0.62 1.4

2.4
B2303+46 1066.371 7.5 11.9 4.35 ? 12.34 32.69 0.66 1.2

Statistics of low eccentricity pulsars known currently in our galactic disk

Name P log d vt Pb x m2
logτc e
[ms] B [kpc] [km/s] [days] [s] [Msun]
J0034-0534 1.877 9.9 7.9 0.98 71 1.59 1.44 <0.00002 0.1

J0218+4232 2.323 8.7 8.6 5.85 ? 2.03 1.98 <0.00002 0.2

J0437-4715 5.757 9.7 8.5 0.18 121 5.74 3.37 0.000019 0.2
Name P log d vt Pb x m2
logτc e
[ms] B [kpc] [km/s] [days] [s] [Msun]
J0613-0200 3.062 9.7 8.2 2.19 77 1.20 1.09 0.000007 0.1

J1713+0747 4.570 10 8.3 0.89 27 67.83 32.34 0.000075 0.3

334.4
B1800-27 8.5 10.9 3.62 ? 406.78 58.94 0.000507 0.1
15
520.9
B1831-00 8.8 10.9 2.63 ? 1.81 0.72 >0.0 0.1
24
B1957+20 1.607 9.4 8.1 1.53 190 0.38 0.09 >0.0 0.02

J2317+1439 3.445 10.6 7.9 1.89 68 2.46 2.31 0.0 0.2

2.5
Details of a few pulsars currently known in globular clusters

2.6
 d Pb x m2
Name P
Cluster [kpc] [days] [s] e [MSun]
[ms]

B1310+18 33.163 M53 18.9 55.80 84.20 0.002 0.3

B1516+02A 5.554 M5 7.0

B1516+02B 7.946 M5 7.0 6.86 3.04 0.14

B1639+36B 3.528 M13 7.7 1.26 1.39 0.005 0.2

B1802-07 23.101 NGC6539 3.1 2.62 3.92 0.21 0.3

B1744-24A 11.563 Terzan5 7.1 0.08 0.12 >0.0 0.1

J1807-24 3.059 NGC6544 2.5 0.071 0.012 >0.0 0.009

B2127+11C 30.529 M15 10.0 0.34 2.52 0.68 0.9

J1910+0004 3.619 NGC6760 4.1 0.14 0.04 >0.0 0.02

J1701-30 5.242 NGC6266 6.7 3.81 3.48 >0.0 0.2

B1718-19 1004.037 NGC6342 7.0 0.26 0.35 >0.0 0.1

J0024-7205E 3.536 47Tuc 4.5 2.26 1.98 0.0003 0.2

J0024-7204H 3.210 47Tuc 4.5 2.36 2.15 0.07 0.2

From these statistical data we learn the following:

2.7
  In almost all the cases the mass of the pulsar is 1.4 times the solar
mass as predicted by Chandrasekhar.
 The binary partner of the pulsar is almost always a low mass star.
 They have very powerful magnetic fields of the order of 108 to 1012.
 The Pulsars are very far away from us.
 They have periods which are un-imaginable for objects of their size.
The period is of the order of a few milliseconds for some pulsars.

Pulse profiles:

Pulsars produce pulses due to the difference in orientation between the spin
and magnetic axis .It is found that the pulses do not occur with the same
shape always even though they pulse after the same interval .A collection of
all such pulses integrated over a long period of time will produce a pulse
diagram which does not change with time! This is like our finger-prints .No
two such diagrams are similar and this serves as the best method to
distinguish pulsars. This diagram is known as the PULSE PROFILE of the
pulsar.
The Pulse diagram can be better understood by looking at the
following figure. The first figure shows the pulses from a pulsar .These can
be different for the same pulsar .The second figure shows the integrated
pulse which remains constant for all time periods and hence is the pulse
profile

2.8
 To gain a better understanding of pulsars and measure the particular
parameters of each, new pulsars are profiled over a significant period of
time. Many observations must be averaged to produce an accurate
characteristic profile.

The term’s that appear in a pulse diagram and their meanings are as follows:

 The pulse profile denotes the variation in intensity measured for a

rotation of 360 degrees by the pulsar i.e. one complete rotation of the
pulsar
 The frequency in the diagram mentioned is the frequency at which the
signal was measured.
 The vertical axis is the intensity of the signal.
 The horizontal axis indicates the change in phase/rotation of pulsar
 Since the pulses are integrated over long periods of time there is no
mention of time
 The peak in the profile occurs when the beam is pointing towards us

2.9
The above figure is the pulse profile of the pulsar J1259-5620 measured at
0.436GHz .the figure on the right is an enlargement of the pulse. The data
was obtained from The European Pulsar Network (EPN) online data archive.

The above figure is the profile of the pulsar B18941-04; it has been plotted
at a frequency of 0.606GHz.The profiles of B18941-04 and J1259-5620 are
remarkably different.

2.10
 The above figure is the profile of B0114+58 measured at 0.408GHz.The
dotted lines are the pulses seen over a short time. This clearly shows the
difference between a pulse and a pulse-profile.

This is the profile of J0D06+1834 found at a frequency of 0.430GHz

Thus using Pulse-profiles we can identify the pulsars uniquely without any
ambiguity.

2.11
GALACTIC DISTRIBUTION OF PULSARS

The pulsars are distributed in the galaxy as shown in the next page .It is
immediately apparent that the pulsars are concentrated strongly along the
galactic plane. Unlike other astronomical objects a quantitative estimate of
the distribution of pulsars can be made .This is due to an effect known as
pulse dispersion i.e. the delay in arrival of pulse across a finite bandwidth.
The dispersion occurs because the pulsed radiation through the ionized
component of inter-stellar medium is frequency dependent. Waves from a
high frequency pulsar travel faster than those from a low frequency pulsar.

The delay Δt in arrival times of a high frequency νhi and a low frequency
pulse νlo is given by the following formula

Δt = 4150s x (νlo-2 – νhi-2).DM

where the frequencies are in MHz and the dispersion measure DM (cm-3pc)
is the integral of column density of free electrons in the line of sight:
d
DM= ∫ ne dl
0

‘d’ is the distance of the pulsar in parsec and ne is the free electron density

We can find DM from the first equation. Pulsars which are far away
will have higher electron densities and hence a higher DM. By
experimentally determining DM and using it in the second equation we can
find the distribution of pulsars in the galaxy. This scale is calibrated using
distances of pulsars determined by using other independent methods.

The distribution diagram of pulsars is as shown:

2.12