Characterizing the Nature of Periodic Amplitude Modulation in Pulsars

Abstract In recent years, periodic amplitude modulation has emerged as a unique emission feature in the single-pulse sequence of pulsars alongside periodic nulling and subpulse drifting. Despite ample evidence for the uniqueness of this phenomenon, the periodic modulation in several pulsars are often confused with subpulse drifting, primarily due to lack of clear characterization of the emission features from a representative sample of pulsars. In this work, we present a detailed analysis of the single-pulse behavior from 17 pulsars exhibiting periodic amplitude modulation, 6 of them being new detections. The pulsar switches between different intensity states as a result of periodic amplitude modulation, and we propose a novel statistical scheme to identify these emission states. The periodic modulation can be divided into three broad categories: phase stationary modulation, modulations with phase shift, and intermittent periodic modulations. The phase stationary behavior is seen when the emission intensity across a major part of the pulse window changes periodically. The phase shifts are associated with intensity changes at specific locations within the emission window in a periodic manner, while in some pulsars, the periodic modulations become more prominent only at specific intervals resulting in intermittent behavior.