On Strong P-Ṗ and Dm- Ṗ Correlations of Pulsars

Student: Stephanie Isioma Ossai (Project, 2025)
Department of Physics
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State

Abstract

We have conducted a statistical analysis of a sample of 2064 pulsars with published values of dispersion measure, rotation period and period derivative. Our sample is heterogeneous, consisting of 1740 pulsars, 900 milliseconds pulsars and 138 magnetars. Scatter plots of period derivative (Ṗ) against period (P) reveals a positive trend for all the 2064 pulsars. Also, simple regression analysis of the data for the 2064 pulsars shows a strong correlation, (with correlation coefficient, r ~ 0.6) between the period derivative and period. This implies that pulsars with high spin down rate (Ṗ) are associated with high rotation period (P). Similarly, scatter plot of dispersion measure (DM) against the period derivative (Ṗ), shows a positive relationship between them with a very strong correlation (r ~ 0.8). This implies that pulsars with large spin down rates are associated with large dispersion measure.

Keywords
magnetars period derivative relationship correlation pulsars dispersion measure
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