A glitch in the Crab pulsar (PSR B0531+21)
ATel #12957; Benjamin Shaw (University of Manchester), Mitchell Mickaliger (UoM), Michael Keith (UoM), Andrew Lyne (UoM), Benjamin Stappers (UoM), Patrick Weltevrede (UoM)
on 25 Jul 2019; 10:27 UT
Credential Certification: Patrick Weltevrede (patrick.weltevrede@manchester.ac.uk)
Subjects: Radio, Neutron Star, Pulsar
We have detected a glitch in the Crab pulsar, PSR B0531+21, on 2019-07-23. This glitch is the 30th observed in this source and occurred 217 days after the previous glitch, which occurred on 2018-12-18 (see http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/pulsar/glitches/gTable.html ). The Crab pulsar is monitored for ~11 hours per day with the 42-ft telescope at the Jodrell Bank Observatory using a 4 MHz wide band centred on 610 MHz. Additional short observations of the Crab pulsar are conducted with the Mark II telescope using a 384 MHz wide band centred on 1520 MHz.
By fitting for the amplitude of the glitch and the epoch, we find an initial fractional rotational spin-up of (36.0+/-0.1)E-09. We currently measure the glitch epoch to be MJD 58687.59 +/- 0.04 (1 sigma errors). In the ~2 days since the glitch there is no indication of a significant change to the spin-down rate, though there is some evidence of post-glitch transient behaviour which we continue to monitor daily. Follow-up observations of this pulsar at other facilities are encouraged in order to refine the glitch characteristics and also to identify any radiative effects seen at other wavelengths.
