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Title:
Observations of Isolated Pulsars Using the TRIFFID Camera
Authors:
Shearer, A.; Redfern, M.; Butler, R.; Golden, A.; O'Kane, P.; Colhoun, M.
Affiliation:
University College Galway Ireland,shearer@epona.physics.ucg.ie
Journal:
Presented at International Astronomical Union. Symposium no. 188. The Hot Universe. Kyoto, Japan, 17-30 August, 1997.
Publication Date:
00/1997
Origin:
AUTHOR
Bibliographic Code:
1997IAUS..188E..73S

Abstract

Optical studies of young and middle aged pulsars are beginning to reveal discrepancies and an evolutionary change in the emission mechanism as the young pulsar ages. Optical radiation combines both magnetospheric non-thermal radiation and thermal radiation from the cooling neutron star surface. We show how observations of pulsed optical emission is a vital component to our understanding of pulsar radiation processes.

We present data which shows that the radio, X- and gamma-ray pulsar PSR0656+14 exhibits pulsed optical emission which is not consistent with a purely thermal origin. Our observed pulsed fraction is higher than that expected from a thermal source when scaled from the observed X-ray flux, and the unpulsed fraction is close to the predictions of a model based upon thermal emission. The magnitude of PSR0656+14 in B band is 24^{m}.9 plus or minus 0.3, with a pulsed component of 25^{m}.8 plus or minus 0.3 . We also present significant upper limits on the pulsed optical emission from Geminga, PSR1509-58 and PSR1952+32. We demonstrate that 2-D photon counting detectors combined with shift and add image sharpening is a powerful tool for the detection of faint optical pulsations

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