RUI: Relativistic Gravitation, Pulsar Beams and Birth Processes, and the Interstellar Medium

RUI：相对论引力、脉冲星束和诞生过程以及星际介质

• 批准号: 1312843
• 负责人: Joel Weisberg
• 金额: $ 32.95万
• 依托单位: Carleton College
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-09-01 至 2018-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1312843&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: RUI; Relativistic; Gravitation; Pulsar; Beams

Pulsars are highly compressed stars, more massive than the Sun, yet smaller than a few miles in diameter. A remarkable feature of pulsars is, because of their spin and strong magnetic field, they create regular pulses of radio waves. The investigator and his undergraduate students plan three areas of pulsar observations. The first is pulsar studies of relativistic gravitation. Pulsar pulses can be considered to be the "ticks" of a very precise clock. A pulsar's pulses are then the ticks of a very precise clock orbiting at high speed in the curved spacetime of a companion star. As such, binary pulsars are outstanding probes of relativistic gravitationThe second area is measurement of pulsar beaming and birth processes. While it is generally accepted that pulsar's beamed radio emissions originates from particles streaming relativistically above their magnetic poles, many details of these processes remain to be elaborated. They plan an investigation of the correlation between pulsar spin axis and proper motion directions, which will provide experimentally derived insights into the processes leading to pulsars. Their data is needed to understand the high pulsar velocities and spin rates. The third area is the study of our galaxy's magnetic field. The radio pulses travel through our galaxy and are affected by our galaxy's magnetic field. Their measurements of the pulsar magnetic field changes with distance and position in the sky will determine part of the magnetic structure of our galaxy. The students will receive invaluable scientific training that is simply not available in the classroom, including data gathering and analysis, testing of hypotheses, collaboration across the world, and oral and written presentation of results. These activities will help students to be future astronomers, physicists, and engineers. Second, the continuing involvement of the PI in these projects will enable him to bring the excitement of research to the classroom, where it will help to inspire scientists and nonscientists alike to study science.

脉冲星是高度压缩的恒星，质量比太阳大，但直径小于几英里。 双星的一个显著特征是，由于它们的自旋和强磁场，它们会产生有规律的无线电波脉冲。 研究人员和他的本科生计划脉冲星观测的三个领域。 第一个是相对论引力的脉冲星研究。脉冲星脉冲可以被认为是一个非常精确的时钟的“滴答声”。脉冲星的脉冲是一个非常精确的时钟在伴星星的弯曲时空中高速运行时的滴答声。因此，双星是相对论引力的杰出探测者。第二个领域是测量脉冲星的聚束和诞生过程。虽然人们普遍认为脉冲星的波束无线电发射来自于在其磁极上方相对论性流动的粒子，但这些过程的许多细节仍有待详细说明。 他们计划对脉冲星自旋轴和自行方向之间的相关性进行研究，这将为导致脉冲星的过程提供实验性的见解。需要他们的数据来了解脉冲星的高速度和自旋速率。第三个领域是研究我们银河系的磁场。 无线电脉冲穿过我们的星系，并受到我们星系磁场的影响。 他们对脉冲星磁场随距离和天空位置变化的测量将确定我们银河系的部分磁场结构。学生将获得宝贵的科学培训，这是根本没有在课堂上，包括数据收集和分析，假设的测试，在世界各地的合作，以及口头和书面陈述的结果。这些活动将帮助学生成为未来的天文学家，物理学家和工程师。其次，PI继续参与这些项目将使他能够将研究的兴奋带到课堂上，这将有助于激励科学家和非科学家学习科学。