High Time Resolution Study of the Pulsar Emission Region

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AST 0139641PI: Timothy H. HankinsThe end state of stellar evolution for many stars is collapse into a highly compact object. These objects often appear as radio sources emitting very frequent short radiation pulses and have become known as pulsars. Pulsars offer many examples of extreme physical conditions that cannot be realized in the laboratory. In this project, Dr. Timothy Hankins and collaborators will study the pulsar plasma region via its coherent radio emission. The research team will carry out a combination of observational and theoretical studies in order to determine conditions in the radio emission region and to test current theoretical models of that region. High time resolution observations with a new data acquisition system capable of time resolution as short as one nanosecond will be used directly to confront and test the theory. The theoretical modeling will predict the characteristic time signatures arising from plasma dynamical processes that are believed to occur in such regions. The new instrumentation will be made available to the radio astronomy community.***