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Polarization

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Polarization

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Beamforming

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Data Output

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Reduced Data

  • Channelize frequencies
    • “Frequency channels”
  • Integrate time series
    • “Sub integrations”
    • Single pulses
      • Set integration time to one pulse period
  • .fits files
    • An “image” of frequency and time data

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Reduced Data - Folding

  • Fold on the known pulse period
  • Noise adds incoherently
    • Noise ~ N^(½)
  • Signal adds coherently
    • Signal ~ N
  • Signal / Noise ~ N^(½)

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Dispersion

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Reduced Data - Dedispersion

  • Electrons between us and the pulsar act like a prism!
  • Total number of electrons = Dispersion Measure
  • Can completely remove dispersive effects!

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Reduced Data - Folded + Coherently Dedispersed

  • .ar files
  • Pulse profile
    • A characteristic of the pulsar
  • summary_plot
    • shows us the brightest pulse profile

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Discovery Plot

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Scrunching Data

  • Average data together to get a better profile
  • pam -TF
    • Average over all time and frequency
  • pam --setnsub X --setnchan Y
    • Average to produce X sub integrations in time and Y channels in frequency
  • Usually for each beam scrunch to 1 - 2 channels and sub integrations