Optimal Frequency Channelization for Pulsar Dispersion Measurements

Jacob Cardinal Tremblay*, Maura McLaughlin, and Brent Shapiro-Albert

Department of Physics and Astronomy, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26506-6315

Presentation Category: Oral-Science & Technology (Oral Presentation #23)

Student’s Major: Physics

The goal of this project is to simulate and analyze pulsar signal data resembling what we would receive from the Green Bank Telescope. Typically, after receiving data from the telescope and before doing certain analysis, we select the number frequency channels that we want to use. This is an important step in processing the data, as it will affect the error in measurements. If we use more channels, we will have a better resolution, however, the signal to noise will be smaller in each channel. This is why we need to find a “sweet spot” where resolution will be high enough to measure dispersion accurately, but we will still have a signal to noise ratio that is high enough to achieve small errors on our measurements. In this project we look at the error in the simulated dispersion measure (DM), to determine the optimum number of frequency channels. This can depend on many factors, such as the specific pulsar being observed, the instrument doing the observing, the length of the observation and the frequency at which it was observed. This project’s biggest impact will be of helping the NANOGrav collaboration determine the specific number of frequency channels that is best for their pulsar timing goals of detecting gravitational waves. Over the course of this project, we have been taking the steps to start developing a model that will help find the optimal number of frequency channels and help in the detection of gravitational waves.

Funding: National Space Grant Foundation

Program/mechanism supporting research/creative efforts: a WVU 497-level course