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Wael Farah

Publications and source records attributed to Wael Farah.

24 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

The UTMOST pulsar timing programme II: Timing noise across the pulsar population

While pulsars possess exceptional rotational stability, large scale timing studies have revealed at least two distinct types of irregularities in their rotation: red timing noise and glitches. Using modern Bayesian techniques, we investigated the timing noise properties of 300 bright southern-sky radio pulsars that have been observed over 1.0-4.8 years by the upgraded Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST). We reanalysed the spin and spin-down changes associated with nine previously reported pulsar glitches, report the discovery of three new glitches and four unusual glitch-like events in the rotational evolution of PSR J1825$-$0935. We develop a refined Bayesian framework for determining how red noise strength scales with pulsar spin frequency ($ν$) and spin-down frequency ($\dotν$), which we apply to a sample of 280 non-recycled pulsars. With this new method and a simple power-law scaling relation, we show that red noise strength scales across the non-recycled pulsar population as $ν^{a} |\dotν|^{b}$, where $a = -0.84^{+0.47}_{-0.49}$ and $b = 0.97^{+0.16}_{-0.19}$. This method can be easily adapted to utilise more complex, astrophysically motivated red noise models. Lastly, we highlight our timing of the double neutron star PSR J0737$-$3039, and the rediscovery of a bright radio pulsar originally found during the first Molonglo pulsar surveys with an incorrectly catalogued position.

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Probing the extragalactic fast transient sky at minute timescales with DECam

Searches for optical transients are usually performed with a cadence of days to weeks, optimised for supernova discovery. The optical fast transient sky is still largely unexplored, with only a few surveys to date having placed meaningful constraints on the detection of extragalactic transients evolving at sub-hour timescales. Here, we present the results of deep searches for dim, minute-timescale extragalactic fast transients using the Dark Energy Camera, a core facility of our all-wavelength and all-messenger Deeper, Wider, Faster programme. We used continuous 20s exposures to systematically probe timescales down to 1.17 minutes at magnitude limits $g > 23$ (AB), detecting hundreds of transient and variable sources. Nine candidates passed our strict criteria on duration and non-stellarity, all of which could be classified as flare stars based on deep multi-band imaging. Searches for fast radio burst and gamma-ray counterparts during simultaneous multi-facility observations yielded no counterparts to the optical transients. Also, no long-term variability was detected with pre-imaging and follow-up observations using the SkyMapper optical telescope. We place upper limits for minute-timescale fast optical transient rates for a range of depths and timescales. Finally, we demonstrate that optical $g$-band light curve behaviour alone cannot discriminate between confirmed extragalactic fast transients such as prompt GRB flashes and Galactic stellar flares.

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Detection of a Glitch in PSR J0908$-$4913 by UTMOST

We report the first detection of a glitch in the radio pulsar PSR J0908$-$4913 (PSR B0906$-$49) during regular timing observations by the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (MOST) as part of the UTMOST project.

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Faint Repetitions from a Bright Fast Radio Burst Source

We report the detection of repeat bursts from the source of FRB 171019, one of the brightest fast radio bursts (FRBs) detected in the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) fly's eye survey. Two bursts from the source were detected with the Green Bank Telescope in observations centered at 820 MHz. The repetitions are a factor of $\sim 590$ fainter than the ASKAP-discovered burst. All three bursts from this source show no evidence of scattering and have consistent pulse widths. The pulse spectra show modulation that could be evidence for either steep spectra or patchy emission. The two repetitions were the only ones found in an observing campaign for this FRB totaling 1000 hr, which also included ASKAP and the 64-m Parkes radio telescope, over a range of frequencies (720$-$2000 MHz) at epochs spanning two years. The inferred scaling of repetition rate with fluence of this source agrees with the other repeating source, FRB 121102. The detection of faint pulses from FRB 171019 shows that at least some FRBs selected from bright samples will repeat if follow-up observations are conducted with more sensitive telescopes.

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A fast radio burst in the direction of the Virgo cluster

The rate of fast radio bursts (FRBs) in the direction of nearby galaxy clusters is expected to be higher than the mean cosmological rate if intrinsically faint FRBs are numerous. In this paper, we describe a targeted search for faint FRBs near the core of the Virgo cluster using the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder telescope. During 300 hr of observations, we discovered one burst, FRB 180417, with dispersion measure DM $=474.8$ cm$^{-3}$pc. The FRB was promptly followed up by several radio telescopes for 27 h, but no repeat bursts were detected. An optical follow-up of FRB 180417 using the PROMPT5 telescope revealed no new sources down to an $R$-band magnitude of 20.1. We argue that FRB 180417 is likely behind the Virgo cluster as the Galactic and intracluster DM contribution are small compared to the DM of the FRB, and there are no galaxies in the line of sight. The non-detection of FRBs from Virgo constrains the faint-end slope, $α<1.52$ (at 68\% confidence limit), and the minimum luminosity, $L_{\rm min}\gtrsim 2\times 10^{40}$ erg s$^{-1}$ (at 68\% confidence limit), of the FRB luminosity function assuming cosmic FRB rate of $10^4$ FRBs sky$^{-1}$ day$^{-1}$ with flux above 1 Jy located out to redshift of 1. Further FRB surveys of galaxy clusters with high-sensitivity instruments will tighten the constraints on the faint end of the luminosity function and, thus, are strongly encouraged.

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Detection of a glitch in the pulsar J1709-4429

We report the detection of a glitch event in the pulsar J1709$-$4429 (also known as B1706$-$44) during regular monitoring observations with the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope (UTMOST). The glitch was found during timing operations, in which we regularly observe over 400 pulsars with up to daily cadence, while commensally searching for Rotating Radio Transients, pulsars, and FRBs. With a fractional size of $Δν/ν\approx 52.4 \times10^{-9}$, the glitch reported here is by far the smallest known for this pulsar, attesting to the efficacy of glitch searches with high cadence using UTMOST.

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