Parkes observations for project P1153 semester 2022APRS_01

Brief description

The ThunderKAT and MeerTRAP teams at the MeerKAT radio telescope have discovered a slow, pulsating radio source in the image and time domain data. We estimate a best fit period P = 75.88 s and period derivative Pdot = 2.9 x 10^-13 s/s. The source is seen to lie in the P-Pdot pulsar parameter phase space "death valley" where radio emission from neutron stars is not expected according to models in the literature. Single pulse analysis of MeerKAT data in the L- and UHF-bands reveals remarkable and unusual spectro-temporal properties, quite unlike anything seen in known radio neutron stars, with some pulses showing quasi-periodic sub-pulse components. We request 9 hours in the April 2022 semester to utilise the excellent ultra wide-band sensitivity of Parkes to study the pulse shape evolution and spectro-tempo-polarimetric properties of the source, probe the broadband nature and evolution of the sub-pulse components, and investigate any radius-to-frequency mapping, allowing us to characterise and/or distinguish it from other types of known neutron stars.