Alumnus Jackson Taylor (B.S. 2023) never misses a pulse! Jackson has developed a new algorithm that automates pulsar-timing for both isolated and binary pulsars (binary pulsars are even more challenging). The code precisely measures the spin frequency, spin frequency derivatives, astrometric position, binary parameters when applicable, properties of the interstellar medium, and potentially general relativistic effects for pulsars.
Jackson, now a graduate student at the University of West Virginia, developed the code along with colleagues Scott Ransom and Prajwal V. Padmanabh. They used the new algorithm to establish timing solutions for two newly discovered binary pulsars, PSRs J1748−2446aq and J1748−2446at, in the globular cluster Terzan 5, using ∼70 Green Bank Telescope observations from the past 13 years.
Jackson work was written up as an AAS “Nova” Research Highlight at https://aasnova.org/2024/03/29/making-computers-count-pulses . The full paper from the Astrophysical Journal is available athttps://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.3847/1538-4357/ad1ce9 .
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