RRAT J1913+1330: An Extremely Variable and Puzzling Pulsar

Abstract Rotating radio transients (RRATs) are neutron stars that emit sporadic radio bursts. We detected 1955 single pulses from RRAT J1913+1330 using the 19 beam receiver of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. These pulses were detected in 19 distinct clusters, with 49.4% of them occurring with a waiting time of one rotation period. The energy distribution of these individual pulses exhibited a wide range, spanning 3 orders of magnitude, reminiscent of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs). Furthermore, we observed abrupt variations in pulse profile, width, peak flux, and fluence between adjacent sequential pulses. These findings suggest that this RRAT could be interpreted as a pulsar with extreme pulse-to-pulse modulation. The presence of sequential pulse trains during active phases, along with significant pulse variations in profile, fluence, flux, and width, should be intrinsic to a subset of RRATs. Our results indicate that J1913+1330 represents a peculiar source that shares certain properties with populations of nulling pulsars, giant pulses, and FRBs from different perspectives. The dramatic pulse-to-pulse variation observed in J1913+1330 could be attributed to unstable pair creation above the polar cap region and the variation of the site where streaming pairs emit coherently. Exploring a larger sample of RRATs exhibiting similar properties to J1913+1330 has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of pulsars, RRATs, and FRBs.

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Publication Details

Journal
The Astrophysical Journal
Published
2024-08-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/ad6602
Citations
13
Primary Topic
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
4.31

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article

RRAT J1913+1330: An Extremely Variable and Puzzling Pulsar

Jin-Jun Geng, Zhichen Pan, Yuan-Pei Yang, J. Kaczmarek et al.
13 citations
The Astrophysical Journal
Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
4.31
article

RRAT J1913+1330: An Extremely Variable and Puzzling Pulsar

Jin-Jun Geng, Zhichen Pan, Yuan-Pei Yang, J. Kaczmarek, J. G. Lu, R. N. Manchester, Yi Feng, Ying Li, Zhenfan Tang, S. Johnston, Lister Staveley‐Smith, Lei Qian, Jun-Jie Wei, Yuxiang Huang, Songbo Zhang, Yuan-Chuan Zou, Shi Dai, Zi-Gao Dai, G. Hobbs, Xue-Feng Wu, Bing Zhang, Di Li, Pei Wang, Peng Jiang, Xuan Yang, Shuangqiang Wang, Q. W. Wu, C. M. Chang, J. S. Wang
article en
13 citations

Abstract

Abstract Rotating radio transients (RRATs) are neutron stars that emit sporadic radio bursts. We detected 1955 single pulses from RRAT J1913+1330 using the 19 beam receiver of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope. These pulses were detected in 19 distinct clusters, with 49.4% of them occurring with a waiting time of one rotation period. The energy distribution of these individual pulses exhibited a wide range, spanning 3 orders of magnitude, reminiscent of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs). Furthermore, we observed abrupt variations in pulse profile, width, peak flux, and fluence between adjacent sequential pulses. These findings suggest that this RRAT could be interpreted as a pulsar with extreme pulse-to-pulse modulation. The presence of sequential pulse trains during active phases, along with significant pulse variations in profile, fluence, flux, and width, should be intrinsic to a subset of RRATs. Our results indicate that J1913+1330 represents a peculiar source that shares certain properties with populations of nulling pulsars, giant pulses, and FRBs from different perspectives. The dramatic pulse-to-pulse variation observed in J1913+1330 could be attributed to unstable pair creation above the polar cap region and the variation of the site where streaming pairs emit coherently. Exploring a larger sample of RRATs exhibiting similar properties to J1913+1330 has the potential to significantly advance our understanding of pulsars, RRATs, and FRBs.

The Astrophysical JournalVol. 972(1)
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (AU), University of Nevada, Las Vegas (US), University of British Columbia (CA), The University of Western Australia (AU), Yunnan University (CN), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), Beijing Normal University (CN), Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory (CN), Purple Mountain Observatory (CN), ASTRO-3D (AU), Zhejiang Lab (CN), Astronomy and Space (AU), ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics (AU), Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics (DE), International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (AU), National Astronomical Observatories (CN), University of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CN), University of British Columbia, Okanagan Campus (CA), Huazhong University of Science and Technology (CN), Western Sydney University (AU), Nanjing University (CN)
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, Government of Jiangsu Province, Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, Youth Innovation Promotion Association
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