Investigation of Nulling and Subpulse-drifting Properties of PSR J1649+2533 with FAST

Abstract

We report the nulling and subpulse-drifting properties of PSR J1649+2533 with observations of the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST). The FAST observations reveal that the nulling fraction of this pulsar is about 20.9% ± 0.8% at 1250 MHz. The statistical study of the durations of the nulling and burst states shows that the burst states can persist for extended pulse periods, exceeding 100 periods in some cases, while the shortest lasts only a few pulse periods. The null states have a much shorter duration, with a maximum duration of less than 30 pulse periods. A comparative study between the pulse profiles of the first active pulse (FAP) and the last active pulse (LAP) shows that the pulse profiles of LAPs are stronger and wider than those of FAPs. An analysis of the two-dimensional fluctuation spectrum for the single-pulse stack indicates that the pulsar exhibits clear amplitude modulation and subpulse drifting. The periods are a P _3 = 2.5 ± 0.1 spin period and P _2 = 17.°0 ± 0.°5 at 1250 MHz, respectively. In addition, the multiband investigation shows that P _2 seems to increase with the increase of the observing frequency, i.e., P _2 ∝ ν ^0.8±0.1 . This seems to be caused by the increasing pulse-profile width with the frequency. The high-sensitivity FAST observations will enable a detailed understanding of the emission of this pulsar and provide important clues for theoretical studies of the radiation mechanism.

Keywords

• Radio pulsars
• Pulsars
• Neutron stars
• Non-thermal radiation sources