Searching for gravitational waves from the Crab pulsar - the problem of timing noise

Pitkin, M. and Woan, G. (2004) Searching for gravitational waves from the Crab pulsar - the problem of timing noise. Classical and Quantum Gravity, 21(5), S843-S846. (doi: 10.1088/0264-9381/21/5/069)

Abstract

Of the current known pulsars, the Crab pulsar (B0531+21) is one of the most promising sources of gravitational waves. The relatively large timing noise of the Crab causes its phase evolution to depart from a simple spin-down model. This effect needs to be taken into account when performing time domain searches for the Crab pulsar in order to avoid severely degrading the search efficiency. The Jodrell Bank Crab pulsar ephemeris is examined to see if it can be used for tracking the phase evolution of any gravitational wave signal from the pulsar, and we present a method of heterodyning the data that takes account of the phase wander. The possibility of obtaining physical information about the pulsar from comparisons of the electromagnetically and a gravitationally observed timing noise is discussed. Finally, additional problems caused by pulsar glitches are discussed.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: Special issue: Proceedings of the 5th Edoardo Amaldi Conference on Gravitational Waves, Tirrenia, Italy, 6-11 July 2003
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Woan, Professor Graham and Pitkin, Dr Matthew
• Authors: Pitkin, M., and Woan, G.
• Subjects: Q Science > QC Physics
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy
• Research Centre: College of Science and Engineering > School of Physics and Astronomy > Institute for Gravitational Research
• Journal Name: Classical and Quantum Gravity
• ISSN: 0264-9381
• ISSN (Online): 1361-6382

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