Date of Graduation

5-2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelor of Science in Physics

Degree Level

Undergraduate

Department

Physics

Advisor/Mentor

Kennefick, Julia

Committee Member/Reader

Lehmer, Bret

Committee Member/Second Reader

Doucet, Annie

Committee Member/Third Reader

Mantero, Paolo

Abstract

A pulsar is a rapidly rotating neutron star which emits electromagnetic radiation from its magnetic poles. Upon detection from Earth, these signals have been dispersed in phase due to electron interactions in transit. The extent of this dispersion indicates information about both the distance to and the location of the pulsar, with respect to Earth and the Galactic plane. This project makes use of radio data from the 100m Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT), presented in the form of prepfold plots assembled by the Pulsar Science Collaboratory (PSC). 1,007 of these plots were analyzed in order to determine if the depicted source was noise, radio frequency interference (RFI), maybe a new pulsar, a previously known pulsar, or a previously unknown pulsar. In addition to this analysis, data from the Australia Telescope National Facility (ATNF) catalogue of known pulsars were used to illustrate the relationship between dispersion measure (DM) and the location of a pulsar, using the galactic coordinate system (l, b). It is shown that a higher DM corresponds to locations nearer to the Galactic plane.

Keywords

pulsars; dispersion measure; radio; Pulsar Science Collaboratory; prepfold plots

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