Parkes observations for project P1185 semester 2023APRS_24

Brief description

Ultra-long period neutron stars (ULPNSs) are an emerging class of objects that have sparked interest and curiosity in the fast transient community. Along with standard magnetars, they have been theorised to be potential progenitors of the enigmatic fast radio bursts (FRBs). The MeerTRAP project at the MeerKAT radio telescope is uncovering several magnetar and ultra-long period neutron star candidates, an example of which is PSR J0901-4046 with a period of 76s. Continued long-term monitoring of PSR J0901-4046 has shown it to be potentially transitioning into radio quiescence. The proposed observations will enable us to continue to monitor and characterise the decline in flux density. We have also discovered two new candidates MTP0027 and MTP0068 with periods of ~10 seconds and ~5 seconds respectively. Both sources exhibit magnetar-like pulse morphology and have only been detected in one epoch with MeerKAT. We propose to continue monitoring these sources to re-detect pulses and study their spectro-temporal-polarimetric properties.