Parkes observations for project P965 semester 2018APRS_BPSR_01

Full description

The deployment of the new ultra-wide-band receiver UWL enables a plethora of experiments which were previously not possible or very difficult. One immediate benefit for pulsar timing studies is the significantly increased ratio of available radio frequency bandwidth to the decorrelation bandwidth as induced by the ionised interstellar medium (ISM). PSR J1933-6211 is a strongly-scintillating millisecond pulsar. Due to its scintillation, previous studies failed to measure the mass and orbital parameters of this system and instead provided limits. With the UWL we expect more reliable detection of bright scintles during every observation; and hence improved and reliable timing precision that will allow a mass measurement through Shapiro-Delay detection. As an additional benefit, we can use the broad band to adequately study the scintillation properties of this pulsar and thereby constrain its orbital inclination. \r
The mass of the pulsar is potentially the lowest known, depending on the type of its white dwarf companion. By measuring it we will also determine the type of the white dwarf which is interesting in its own right and is one of the coolest such objects known (Antoniadis, priv. comm.). Finally, we will verify if, as we expect, the precision attainable with the increased bandwidth is sufficient for high-precision pulsar timing and inclusion of PSR J1933-6211 in pulsar timing array experiments.