36824022
peace: pulsar evaluation algorithm for candidate extraction – a software package for post-analysis processing of pulsar survey candidates
Modern radio pulsar surveys produce a large volume of prospective candidates, the majority of which are polluted by human-created radio frequency interference or other forms of noise. Typically, large numbers of candidates need to be visually inspected in order to determine if they are real pulsars. This process can be labour intensive. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm called Pulsar Evaluation Algorithm for Candidate Extraction (PEACE) which improves the efficiency of identifying pulsar signals. The algorithm ranks the candidates based on a score function. Unlike popular machine-learning-based algorithms, no prior training data sets are required. This algorithm has been applied to data from several large-scale radio pulsar surveys. Using the human-based ranking results generated by students in the Arecibo Remote Command Center programme, the statistical performance of PEACE was evaluated. It was found that PEACE ranked 68 per cent of the student-identified pulsars within the top 0.17 per cent of sorted candidates, 95 per cent within the top 0.34 per cent and 100 per cent within the top 3.7 per cent. This clearly demonstrates that PEACE significantly increases the
118616891
X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF HIGH-B RADIO PULSARS
The study of high-magnetic-field pulsars is important for examining the relationships between radio pulsars, magnetars, and X-ray-isolated neutron stars (XINSs). Here, we report on X-ray observations of three such high-magnetic-field radio pulsars. We first present the results of a deep XMM-Newton observation of PSR J1734–3333, taken to follow up on its initial detection in 2009. The pulsar's spectrum is well fit by a blackbody with a temperature of 300 ± 60 eV, with bolometric luminosity for a distance of 6.1 kpc. We detect no X-ray pulsations from the source, setting a 1σ upper limit on the pulsed fraction of 60% in the 0.5-3 keV band. We compare PSR J1734–3333 to other rotation-powered pulsars of similar age and find that it is significantly hotter, supporting the hypothesis that the magnetic field affects the observed thermal properties of pulsars. We also report on XMM-Newton and Chandra observations of PSRs B1845–19 and J1001–5939. We do not detect either pulsar, setting 3σ upper limits on their blackbody temperatures of 48 and 56 eV, respectively. Despite the similarities in rotational properties, these sources are significantly cooler than all but one of the XINSs, which we attribute to the two groups having been born with different magnetic fields and hence evolving differently.
7392737
Timing of a Young Mildly Recycled Pulsar with a Massive White Dwarf Companion
We report on timing observations of the recently discovered binary pulsar PSR J1952+2630 using the Arecibo Observatory. The mildly recycled 20.7-ms pulsar is in a 9.4-hr orbit with a massive, MW D > 0.93 M⊙, white dwarf (WD) companion. We present, for the first time, a phase-coherent timing solution, with precise spin, astrometric, and Keplerian orbital parameters. This shows that the characteristic age of PSR J1952+2630 is 77 Myr, younger by one order of magnitude than any other recycled pulsar–massive WD system. We derive an upper limit on the true age of the system of 150 Myr. We investigate the formation of PSR J1952+2630 using detailed modelling of the mass-transfer process from a naked helium star on to the neutron star following a common-envelope phase (Case BB Roche-lobe overflow). From our modelling of the progenitor system, we constrain the accretion efficiency of the neutron star, which suggests a value between 100 and 300% of the Eddington accretion limit. We present numerical models of the chemical structure of a possible oxygenneon-magnesium WD companion. Furthermore, we calculate the past and the future spin evolution of PSR J1952+2630, until the system merges in about 3.4 Gyr due to gravitational wave emission. Although we detect no relativistic effects in our timing analysis we show that several such effects will become measurable with continued observations over the next 10 years; thus PSR J1952+2630 has potential as a testbed for gravitational theories.
55413960
SEARCHING FOR PULSARS USING IMAGE PATTERN RECOGNITION
In the modern era of big data, many fields of astronomy are generating huge volumes of data, the analysis of which can sometimes be the limiting factor in research. Fortunately, computer scientists have developed powerful data-mining techniques that can be applied to various fields. In this paper, we present a novel artificial intelligence (AI) program that identifies pulsars from recent surveys by using image pattern recognition with deep neural nets—the PICS (Pulsar Image-based Classification System) AI. The AI mimics human experts and distinguishes pulsars from noise and interference by looking for patterns from candidate plots. Different from other pulsar selection programs that search for expected patterns, the PICS AI is taught the salient features of different pulsars from a set of human-labeled candidates through machine learning. The training candidates are collected from the Pulsar Arecibo L-band Feed Array (PALFA) survey. The information from each pulsar candidate is synthesized in four diagnostic plots, which consist of image data with up to thousands of pixels. The AI takes these data from each candidate as its input and uses thousands of such candidates to train its ~9000 neurons. The deep neural networks in this AI system grant it superior ability to recognize various types of pulsars as well as their harmonic signals. The trained AI's performance has been validated with a large set of candidates from a different pulsar survey, the Green Bank North Celestial Cap survey. In this completely independent test, the PICS ranked 264 out of 277 pulsar-related candidates, including all 56 previously known pulsars and 208 of their harmonics, in the top 961 (1%) of 90,008 test candidates, missing only 13 harmonics. The first non-pulsar candidate appears at rank 187, following 45 pulsars and 141 harmonics. In other words, 100% of the pulsars were ranked in the top 1% of all candidates, while 80% were ranked higher than any noise or interference. The performance of this system can be improved over time as more training data are accumulated. This AI system has been integrated into the PALFA survey pipeline and has discovered six new pulsars to date.
122554827
Antishadowing contribution to the small x behavior of the gluon distribution
Abstract We introduce antishadowing into the Gribov-Levin-Ryskin evolution equation and restore the momentum sum rule. It is found clearly that antishadowing will modify the shadowing effect in the region 10 −4 x −2 when a hot spot with small radius exists in the nucleon.
122900977
Distributions of valons in nuclei and European Muon Collaboration effect
The new European Muon Collaboration (EMC) effect in the low and the main regions of x may be understood by means of the valon picture, i.e., the valon structure functions are universal but valon distribution function of a nucleon is distorted when the nucleon is combined into a nucleus.
125616154
A BAG MODEL WITH PSEUDOSCALAR MESON CLOUD. (IN CHINESE)
119186907
Are valence quarks rotating
We suggest to compare the deep inelastic scattering structure functions measured in the unpolarized charged-lepton scattering off a transversely polarized proton and off a longitudinally polarized proton at larger Bjorken variable $x$, one may get a direct evidence concerning the valence quark orbital angular momentum in the proton. This possible rotating effect is estimated by using a proton-ensemble model.
123640290
A determination of the parton distributions for flavor asymmetric light sea in the proton
Using the DGLAP equation with corrections of parton recombination, it is the first time that the distributions of the flavor asymmetric sea in the proton are extracted from the available experimental data in a model-independent way. We find that the distribution shape of the asymmetric sea quark is similar to that of the corresponding valence quark. Based on the separation of the flavor symmetric and asymmetric sea, the possible relations between the strange quark distribution and symmetric light quark distribution in the proton are discussed. The results are used to explain the recent HERMES results for the strange quark distribution. The comparisons of our results with the predictions of the CTEQ-, MRS-, GRVdatabases and some models for flavor asymmetric sea are also presented. PACS number(s): 12.38.Lg, 14.20.Dh 11.30.Hv keywords: parton distribution, flavor asymmetry, sea quark, strange quark ∗Corresponding author, E-mail: weizhu@mail.ecnu.edu.cn 1