Radio polarisation properties of neutron stars

射电脉冲星的决定性特征是它们的周期性脉冲，可以用射电望远镜探测到。产生这些射电脉冲的恒星是中子星，这是一种密度极高的恒星，质量约为太阳的1.5倍，半径仅为10公里。射电脉冲星将粒子加速到相对论速度，然后沿着它们极强磁场的场线运动。当这些粒子产生的射电发射光束扫过地球（像一个“灯塔”）时，我们期望它能描述极化的具体变化，这可以告诉我们脉冲星的几何形状的细节，包括它的旋转和磁轴的位置，然而事实证明比这更复杂，它让我们瞥见了发射过程本身的电动力学。在这个项目中，你将研究脉冲星的偏振特性。您将从Jodrell Bank天文台的Lovell射电望远镜的数据开始，充分利用其新的偏振能力。这将补充来自澳大利亚帕克斯望远镜和LOFAR的数据，LOFAR是一个大型的下一代射电望远镜阵列，在非常低的频率下工作。这个项目包括数据分析和建立一个计算机模型来描述脉冲星磁层的物理特性，其中将包括各种相对论效应。该模型将用于提供一个自洽的图像，可以描述您的数据，这是目前过于简化的“标准”模型无法做到的。

The defining characteristic of radio pulsars is their periodic pulses which can be detected by radio telescopes. The stars that generate these radio pulses are neutron stars, super dense stars with a mass of ~1.5 solar masses and a radius of only ~10 km. Radio pulsars accelerate particles to relativistic speeds which then move along the field lines of their extremely strong magnetic fields. As the beam of radio emission that these particles generates sweeps across the Earth (like a "light house") we expect it to describe a specific change in polarisation which can tell us details of the geometry of the pulsar, including the location of its rotation and magnetic axes, however it turns out to be more complicated than this and is giving us a glimpse of the electrodynamics of the emission process itself. In this project you will investigate the polarization properties of pulsars. You will start with data from the Lovell radio telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory, making full use of its new polarization capability. This will be supplemented with data from the Parkes telescope in Australia and LOFAR, a large next generation array of radio telescopes operating at very low frequencies. This project involves data analysis and building a computer model describing the physics of the pulsar magnetosphere, which will include various relativistic effects. The model will be used to provide a self-consistent picture which can describe your data, for which the currently oversimplified "standard" model fails.