The NANOGrav 15 yr Dataset: Modified Functional Forms for Profile-Evolution Time Delays in Pulsar Timing Models

Abstract

Radio pulsars exhibit frequency-dependent variations in the shape of their pulse profiles that introduce systematic delays in the observed pulse times of arrival (TOA) across an observing band. The North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) models these delays using a frequency-dependent (FD) log-polynomial function whose coefficients are fit to TOA measurements at different radio frequencies. However, FD parameters are prone to absorbing power from other chromatic effects, such as interstellar dispersion, leading to fitted FD values that overestimate profile evolution and vary significantly across datasets. To separate these effects, we introduce two new mathematical formulations of profile evolution: a monomial expansion (IFD) and a Legendre polynomial expansion (LIFD). We test these models on observations of 11 pulsars in the NANOGrav 15-year dataset and on simulated data, and also compare their performance to that of frequency-resolved pulse templates. We find that Legendre-based models generally predict timing delays that more closely replicate the true profile evolution, reducing the residual offset relative to FD by as much as 85% for the simulated data. Additionally, we find that the choice of profile evolution model can bias the fitted dispersion model, with FD-based models overestimating the injected DM by 0.013 pc cm^-3 compared to 0.0002 pc cm^-3 for LIFD. These results support the use of Legendre bases to mitigate covariances between chromatic effects, directly benefiting targeted timing studies of these effects and the development of advanced noise-modeling techniques for nanohertz gravitational-wave detection.