Statistical Analysis of Pulsar Flux Density Distribution

Abstract

This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the spectral properties of 886 pulsars across a wide frequency range from 20 MHz–343.5 GHz, including a total of 86 millisecond pulsars (MSPs). The majority of the pulsars exhibit power-law behavior in their spectra, although some exceptions are observed. Five different spectral models, namely, simple power law, broken power law, low-frequency turnover, high-frequency cutoff, and double turnover, were employed to explore the spectral behaviors. The average spectral index for pulsars modeled with a simple power law is found to be −1.64 ± 0.80, consistent with previous studies. Additionally, significant correlations between the spectral index and characteristic parameters are observed, particularly in MSPs, while no strong correlation is observed in normal pulsars. Different models show variations in the most influential characteristic parameters associated with the spectral index, indicating diverse dominant radiation mechanisms in MSPs. Finally, this study identifies 22 pulsars of the gigahertz-peaked spectra type for the first time based on the Akaike information criterion.

Keywords

• Pulsars
• Spectral index
• Radio astronomy