We report the results of careful astrometric measurements of the Cannonball pulsar J0002+6216 carried out over three years using the High Sensitivity Array (HSA). We significantly refine the proper motion to $\mu=35.3\pm0.6$ mas yr$^{-1}$ and place new constraints on the distance, with the overall effect of lowering the velocity and increasing the inferred age to $47.60\pm0.80$ kyr. Although the pulsar is brought more in line with the standard natal kick distribution, this new velocity has implications for the morphology of the pulsar wind nebula that surrounds it, the density of the interstellar medium through which it travels, and the age of the supernova remnant (CTB 1) from which it originates.

S. Bruzewski F. K. Schinzel G. B. Taylor P. Demorest D. A. Frail M. Kerr P. Kumar

We present high-precision timing observations spanning up to nine years for 37 millisecond pulsars monitored with the Green Bank and Arecibo radio telescopes as part of the North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves (NANOGrav) project. We describe the observational and instrumental setups used to collect the data, and methodology applied for calculating pulse times of arrival; these include novel methods for measuring instrumental offsets and characterizing low signal-to-noise ratio timing results. The time of arrival data are fit to a physical timing model for each source, including terms that characterize time-variable dispersion measure and frequency-dependent pulse shape evolution. In conjunction with the timing model fit, we have performed a Bayesian analysis of a parameterized timing noise model for each source, and detect evidence for excess low-frequency, or "red," timing noise in 10 of the pulsars. For 5 of these cases this is likely due to interstellar medium propagation effects rather than intrisic spin variations. Subsequent papers in this series will present further analysis of this data set aimed at detecting or limiting the presence of nanohertz-frequency gravitational wave signals.

Z. Arzoumanian A. Brazier S. Burke-Spolaor S. Chamberlin S. Chatterjee B. Christy J. M. Cordes N. Cornish K. Crowter P. B. Demorest T. Dolch J. A. Ellis R. D. Ferdman E. Fonseca N. Garver-Daniels M. E. Gonzalez F. A. Jenet G. Jones M. Jones V. M. Kaspi M. Koop M. T. Lam T. J. W. Lazio L. Levin A. N. Lommen D. R. Lorimer J. Luo R. S. Lynch D. Madison M. A. McLaughlin S. T. McWilliams D. J. Nice N. Palliyaguru T. T. Pennucci S. M. Ransom X. Siemens I. H. Stairs D. R. Stinebring K. Stovall J. K. Swiggum M. Vallisneri R. van Haasteren Y. Wang W. Zhu

We describe the morphological and fluctuation properties of the pulsars in the double neutron star system, PSR J0737--3039. Pulsar B is seen in almost all orbital phases, except in the range of $\sim 6\deg$ to $65\deg$. This may be interpreted as an {\it eclipse} of pulsar B's signal by its own magnetopause region produced by interaction with pulsar A's relativistic wind. No modulation of the emission of pulsar B is found at the period of pulsar A. This places a constraint on the models that propose that pulsar A's beamed radiation is directly responsible for pulsar B's emission. Modulation index values indicate that the pulse to pulse variations in the two objects are mostly intrinsic. Pulsar A shows significant differential modulation index within its pulse profile.

R. Ramachandran D. C. Backer P. Demorest S. M. Ransom V. M. Kaspi

We report on polarimetric observations of 100 pulsars centered on 774 MHz, made using the Green Bank Telescope, presenting their polarization profiles and polarized flux densities and comparing them with previous observations when possible. For 67 pulsars, these are the first such measurements made. Polarization profiles of 8 millisecond pulsars in our sample show wide profiles and flat position-angle curves. Strong linear polarization, sometimes approaching 100% of the total intensity, has been detected in all or a part of the average pulse profiles of some pulsars. In general, circular polarization is very weak, although it is observed to be extremely strong in the leading component of PSR J1920+2650. Sense reversal of circular polarization as a function of pulse phase has been detected from both core and other components of more than 20 pulsars. Any relationship between the spin-down luminosity and the percentage of linear polarization is not evident in our data at this frequency.

J. L. Han P. B. Demorest W. van Straten A. G. Lyne

In this paper we analyze high time resolution single pulse data of PSR B0809+74 at 820 MHz. We compare the subpulse phase behavior, undocumented at 820 MHz, with previously published results. The subpulse period changes over time and we measure a subpulse phase jump, when visible, that ranges from 95 to 147 degrees. We find a correlation between the subpulse modulation, subpulse phase, and orthogonal polarization modes. This variety of complicated behavior is not well understood and is not easily explained within the framework of existing models, most of which are founded on the drifting spark model of Ruderman & Sutherland (1975). We quantitatively fit our data with a non-radial oscillation model (Clemens & Rosen 2008) and show that the model can accurately reproduce the drifting subpulses, orthogonal polarization modes, subpulse phase jump, and can explain the correlation between all these features.

R. Rosen P. Demorest

The increasing sensitivities of pulsar timing arrays to ultra-low frequency (nHz) gravitational waves promises to achieve direct gravitational wave detection within the next 5-10 years. While there are many parallel efforts being made in the improvement of telescope sensitivity, the detection of stable millisecond pulsars and the improvement of the timing software, there are reasons to believe that the methods used to accurately determine the time-of-arrival (TOA) of pulses from radio pulsars can be improved upon. More specifically, the determination of the uncertainties on these TOAs, which strongly affect the ability to detect GWs through pulsar timing, may be unreliable. We propose two Bayesian methods for the generation of pulsar TOAs starting from pulsar "search-mode" data and pre-folded data. These methods are applied to simulated toy-model examples and in this initial work we focus on the issue of uncertainties in the folding period. The final results of our analysis are expressed in the form of posterior probability distributions on the signal parameters (including the TOA) from a single observation.

C. Messenger A. Lommen P. Demorest S. Ransom

A pure nucleonic equation of state (EoS) for beta equilibrated charge neutral neutron star (NS) matter is determined using density dependent effective NN interaction. This EoS is found to satisfy both the constraints from the observed mass-radius of neutron stars and flow data from heavy-ion collisions. Recent observations of the binary millisecond pulsar J1614-2230 by P. B. Demorest et al. [1] suggest that the masses lie within (1.97\pm 0.04) M_\odot (M_\odot, solar mass). Most EoS involving exotic matter, such as kaon condensates or hyperons, tend to predict maximum masses well below 2.0M_\odot and are therefore ruled out. We are able to reproduce the measured mass-radius relationship for rotating and static NS. We ensure that the star rotating not faster than the frequency limited by r-mode instability gives the maximum mass about 1.95M_\odot with radius about 10 kilometer.

Partha Roy Chowdhury

Our understanding of the neutron star population is informed to a great degree by large-scale surveys that have been carried out by radio facilities during the past fifty years. We summarize some of the recent breakthroughs in our understanding of the radio pulsar population and look ahead to future yields from upcoming experiments planned for the next decade. By the end of the 2020s, we anticipate a much more complete census of the Galactic population and being able to probe the populations of radio-emitting neutron stars more effectively in external galaxies. Among the anticipated discoveries are pulsar--black hole binary systems that will provide further tests of strong-field gravity, as well as large numbers of millisecond pulsars that are crucial to enhancing the sensitivity of timing arrays for low-frequency gravitational waves.

D. R. Lorimer N. Pol K. Rajwade K. Aggarwal D. Agarwal J. Strader N. Lewandowska D. Kaplan T. Cohen P. Demorest E. Fonseca S. Chatterjee

We are performing a transient, microsecond timescale radio sky survey, called "Astropulse," using the Arecibo telescope. Astropulse searches for brief (0.4 {\mu}s to 204.8 {\mu}s), wideband (relative to its 2.5 MHz bandwidth) radio pulses centered at 1,420 MHz. Astropulse is a commensal (piggyback) survey, and scans the sky between declinations of -1.33 and 38.03 degrees. We obtained 1,540 hours of data in each of 7 beams of the ALFA receiver, with 2 polarizations per beam. Examination of timescales on the order of a few microseconds is possible because we used coherent dedispersion. The more usual technique, incoherent dedispersion, cannot resolve signals below a minimum timescale. However, coherent dedispersion requires more intensive computation than incoherent dedispersion. The required processing power was provided by BOINC, the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing.

J. Von Korff P. Demorest E. Heien E. Korpela D. Werthimer J. Cobb M. Lebofsky D. Anderson B. Bankay A. Siemion

We present the measurements of Faraday rotation for 477 pulsars observed by the Parkes 64-m radio telescope and the Green Bank 100-m radio telescope. Using these results along with previous measurements for pulsars and extra-galactic sources, we analyse the structure of the large-scale magnetic field in the Galactic disk. Comparison of rotation measures of pulsars in the disk at different distances as well as with rotation measures of background radio sources beyond the disk reveals large-scale reversals of the field directions between spiral arms and interarm regions. We develop a model for the disk magnetic field, which can reproduce not only these reversals but also the distribution of observed rotation measures of background sources.

J. L. Han R. N. Manchester W. van Straten P. Demorest