A large glitch in the Crab pulsar (PSR B0531+21)

ATel #10939; Benjamin Shaw (University of Manchester), Andrew Lyne (UoM), Cees Bassa (ASTRON), Rene Breton (UoM), Christine Jordan (UoM), Michael Keith (UoM), Mitchell Mickaliger (UoM), Benjamin Stappers (UoM), Patrick Weltevrede (UoM)
on 8 Nov 2017; 16:16 UT
Credential Certification: Patrick Weltevrede (patrick.weltevrede@manchester.ac.uk)

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We have detected a large glitch event in the timing data of the Crab pulsar, B0531+21, which we monitor routinely as part of the pulsar timing programme at the Jodrell Bank Observatory with the 42-ft and Lovell telescopes. The glitch occurred yesterday (Tuesday 7th Nov 2017) and our preliminary analysis indicates a fractional rotational spin-up of dF0/F0 = (0.471+/-0.003)E-6 (3 sigma), which makes it the largest glitch reported in this pulsar since its discovery in 1968 by more than a factor of two when compared to the glitches in the Jodrell Bank glitch database (http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/pulsar/glitches/gTable.html). There is not yet any indication of a significant change in spin-down rate. The source is monitored for 11 hours per day with the 42-ft telescope, but the glitch occurred while the source was below the horizon. We currently constrain the epoch to be at MJD 58064.555+/-0.003. Follow-up observations of this pulsar are encouraged to help refine the glitch characteristics and also to see if there are any radiative effects seen at other wavelengths.