binary radio pulsars
31 Mar 2009 8:32:35 UTC
Topic 194255
(moderation:
Isn't the new search for binary radio pulsars a duplication of work already being done by SETI@Home in their AstroPulse project?
From the SETI@Home FAQ on Astropulse
Quote:
What else might Astropulse find?
In addition to ET, Astropulse might detect other sources, such as rapidly rotating pulsars, exploding primordial black holes, or as-yet unknown astrophysical phenomena.
You can imagine that SETI@home is a search for a gold needle (ET) in a haystack. During the search for a gold needle, Astropulse might occasionally find a silver needle (a pulsar or black hole.) These silver needles have their own scientific value, even if they don't represent extraterrestrial communications.
binary radio pulsars
)
Check this thread and the links inside.
Michael
Team Linux Users Everywhere
Hi! As that thread is
)
Hi!
As that thread is rather long, I'll try to summarize. The E@H pulsar search is rather specific with respect to the targeted pulsars: pulsars in binary systems with a relatively (no pun intended) close orbit. The orbit must be so close that even during the short observation time (per sky position) of just a few minutes, a change in the signal due to the pulsars orbit in the binary system can be detected.
So in the language of the first message, this is a rather special sort of silver needle that is very unlikely to be found when looking for "gold needles". On the other hand, the E@H pulsar search won't be good for finding ETs, so both searches have little (if any) overlap.
CU
Bikeman
Many
)
Many thanks.
So far, this project has
)
So far, this project has re-discovered known radio pulsars. I am curious to know. How many known radio pulsars are there in our galaxy? I suspect there are many more to be found. What is the probability of discovering new radio pulsars with this project?
RE: So far, this project
)
A fair number of the re-discoveries are ones that were found by the initial processing of this very same data by the search team when it was collected (about 4 years ago for the bulk of it). IIRC, they found over 40 previously undiscovered pulsars. As the earlier post described, the ABP1 search using E@H is an attempt to find some really special pulsars that may have been missed in the earlier search. We might come up empty, since we have no idea how many of these there may be out there. There are probably over 200 known pulsars in the sections of sky surveyed; nearly all of them are "boring." The hope is there could likely be one or two silver needles that in the right circumstances could be worth a couple careers (if not a Nobel).
There are over 2,000 known radio pulsars in the galaxy. The total galactic population is an important research question, with best guesses in the 100,000 range. What these numbers imply for galactic stellar evolution is again an interesting research topic.
"Better is the enemy of the good." - Voltaire (should be memorized by every requirements lead)