PSRJ0537-6910 and PSRB0540-69
PI: F. Marshall
Co: J. Middleditch, W. Zhang, E. V. Gotthelf, D. Q. Wang, D. Thompson
Title: The Spindown Evolution of Two Young Pulsars in the LMC
Abstract
We propose to continue our highly successful timing campaign of two young rotationpowered
pulsars located in the LMC. Longterm monitoring has revealed extreme timing glitches from
the 16ms pulsar PSRJ0537-6910, anomalous activity prior to glitches, and a tight correlation
between the glitch magnitude and the interval between glitches. The 50ms pulsar PSRB0540-69,
which has an unusually low and varying braking index, is also in the RXTE field of view. With
our greatly improved ability to measure the times of glitches, further Xray observations will
provide much better tests of the predictability of glitching activity from PSRJ0537-6910 while
extending our study of the braking index and timing noise of PSRB0540-69. Continued RXTE
observations are necessary for studying gammaray emission from these pulsars with GLAST.
Monitoring the longterm spindown evolution of both pulsars will help further our understanding
of emission mechanisms of young pulsars and probe their interior structure.