Quasi-periodicities in the anomalous emission events in pulsars B1859+07 and B0919+06

Abstract

A quasi-periodicity has been identified in the strange emission shifts in pulsar B1859+07 and possibly B0919+06. These events, first investigated by Rankin, Rodriguez & Wright in 2006, originally appeared disordered or random, but further mapping as well as Fourier analysis has revealed that they occur on a fairly regular basis of approximately 150 rotation periods in B1859+07 and perhaps some 700 in B0919+06. The events - which we now refer to as 'swooshes' - are not the result of any known type of mode-changing, but rather we find that they are a uniquely different effect, produced by some mechanism other than any known pulse-modulation phenomenon. Given that we have yet to find another explanation for the swooshes, we have appealed to a last resort for periodicities in astrophysics: orbital dynamics in a binary system. Such putative 'companions' would then have semimajor axes comparable to the light cylinder radius for both pulsars. However, in order to resist tidal disruption, their densities must be at least some 105 g cm-3 - therefore, white-dwarf cores or something even denser might be indicated.