Simultaneous absolute timing of the Crab pulsar at radio and optical wavelengths

T. Oosterbroek, I. Cognard, A. Golden, P. Verhoeve, D. D.E. Martin, C. Erd, R. Schulz, J. A. Stüwe, A. Stankov, T. Ho

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Context. The Crab pulsar emits across a large part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Determining the time delay between the emission at different wavelengths will allow to better constrain the site and mechanism of the emission. We have simultaneously observed the Crab Pulsar in the optical with S-Cam, an instrument based on Superconducting Tunneling Junctions (STJs) with s time resolution and at 2 GHz using the Nançay radio telescope with an instrument doing coherent dedispersion and able to record giant pulses data.Aims. We have studied the delay between the radio and optical pulse using simultaneously obtained data therefore reducing possible uncertainties present in previous observations.Methods. We determined the arrival times of the (mean) optical and radio pulse and compared them using the tempo2 software package.Results. We present the most accurate value for the optical-radio lag of s and suggest the likelihood of a spectral dependence to the excess optical emission asociated with giant radio pulses..

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)271-277
Number of pages7
JournalAstronomy and Astrophysics
Volume488
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 2008
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • PSR J0534+2200
  • Stars: pulsars: individual: Crab Pulsar

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

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