Speaker
Description
Pulsars are small, dense stars which rotate up to 1500 times per second and emit radio waves in a directed beam along their magnetic axis. Pulsars are remarkably stable rotators, and by measuring the arrival times of the radio beam the pulsar can be used as a clock in space. Applications of pulsar timing have led to the first exoplanet system, stringent tests of theories of gravity and have the potential to detect gravitational waves. The pulsar clocks are not perfect though, and understanding the imperfections (timing noise) is important for the future of the field. We therefore study timing results from 133 pulsars observed with the Parkes radio telescope in Australia over a period of 4 years. The aim of the project is to understand the correlation between timing noise and other pulsar parameters such as age and spin-down energy. First results are presented here.
