Rotational evolution of the Vela pulsar during the 2016 glitch
Rotational evolution of the Vela pulsar during the 2016 glitch
The 2016 Vela glitch observed by the Mount Pleasant radio telescope provides the first opportunity to study pulse-to-pulse dynamics of a pulsar glitch, opening up new possibilities to study the neutron star’s interior. We fit models of the star’s rotation frequency to the pulsar data, and present the following three results. First, we constrain the glitch rise time to less than 12.6 s with 90% confidence, almost three-times shorter than the previous best constraint. Second, we find definitive evidence for a rotational-frequency overshoot and fast relaxation following the glitch. Third, we find evidence for a slowdown of the star’s rotation immediately before the glitch. The overshoot is predicted theoretically by some models; we discuss implications of the glitch rise and overshoot decay times on internal neutron-star physics. The slowdown preceding the glitch is unexpected; we propose the slowdown may trigger the glitch by causing a critical lag between crustal superfluid and the crust.
1143-1148
Ashton, Gregory
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Lasky, Paul D.
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Graber, Vanessa
51902396-fcfb-484a-b21d-14443aaade48
Palfreyman, Jim
d33a5bdf-6673-41a3-b752-f8dfed2c96f5
12 August 2019
Ashton, Gregory
a8cec4b1-3c98-4b28-af2a-1e37cb3b9f2a
Lasky, Paul D.
21c4d51d-89db-4dc1-b5f9-cd9835d54fad
Graber, Vanessa
51902396-fcfb-484a-b21d-14443aaade48
Palfreyman, Jim
d33a5bdf-6673-41a3-b752-f8dfed2c96f5
Ashton, Gregory, Lasky, Paul D., Graber, Vanessa and Palfreyman, Jim
(2019)
Rotational evolution of the Vela pulsar during the 2016 glitch.
Nature Astronomy, 3 (12), .
(doi:10.1038/s41550-019-0844-6).
Abstract
The 2016 Vela glitch observed by the Mount Pleasant radio telescope provides the first opportunity to study pulse-to-pulse dynamics of a pulsar glitch, opening up new possibilities to study the neutron star’s interior. We fit models of the star’s rotation frequency to the pulsar data, and present the following three results. First, we constrain the glitch rise time to less than 12.6 s with 90% confidence, almost three-times shorter than the previous best constraint. Second, we find definitive evidence for a rotational-frequency overshoot and fast relaxation following the glitch. Third, we find evidence for a slowdown of the star’s rotation immediately before the glitch. The overshoot is predicted theoretically by some models; we discuss implications of the glitch rise and overshoot decay times on internal neutron-star physics. The slowdown preceding the glitch is unexpected; we propose the slowdown may trigger the glitch by causing a critical lag between crustal superfluid and the crust.
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Published date: 12 August 2019
Additional Information:
Funding Information: We are grateful to A. Melatos and I. Jones for valuable comments. Computations were performed on the OzStar supercomputer. P.D.L. is supported through an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship FT160100112 and Discovery Project DP180103155. V.G. is supported by a McGill Space Institute postdoctoral fellowship and the Trottier Chair in Astrophysics and Cosmology. Publisher Copyright: © 2019, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
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Local EPrints ID: 508011
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/508011
ISSN: 2397-3366
PURE UUID: 6fd5a5b6-8b76-43ab-9572-a0671a674f2e
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Date deposited: 09 Jan 2026 17:44
Last modified: 10 Jan 2026 05:27
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Author:
Gregory Ashton
Author:
Paul D. Lasky
Author:
Vanessa Graber
Author:
Jim Palfreyman
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