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We report on the discovery of consecutive bright radio pulses from the Vela pulsar, a new phenomenon that may lead to a greater understanding of the pulsar emission mechanism. This results from a total of 345 hr worth of observations of the Vela pulsar using the University of Tasmania's 26 m radio telescope to study the frequency and statistics of abnormally bright pulses and sub-pulses. The bright pulses show a tendency to appear consecutively. The observations found two groups of six consecutive bright pulses and many groups of two to five bright pulses in a row. The strong radio emission process that produces the six bright pulses lasts between 0.4 and 0.6 s. The numbers of bright pulses in sequence far exceed what would be expected if individual bright pulses were independent random events. Consecutive bright pulses must be generated by an emission process that is long lived relative to the rotation period of the neutron star.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	pulsars: general; pulsars: individual (PSR J0835-4510); radiation mechanisms: non-thermal
Research Division:	Physical Sciences
Research Group:	Astronomical and Space Sciences
Research Field:	Galactic Astronomy
Objective Division:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Group:	Expanding Knowledge
Objective Field:	Expanding Knowledge in the Physical Sciences
Author:	Palfreyman, JL (Mr Jim Palfreyman)
Author:	Dickey, JM (Professor John Dickey)
Author:	Hotan, CE (Mrs Claire Hotan)
ID Code:	75067
Year Published:	2011
Web of Science® Times Cited:	3
Deposited By:	Mathematics and Physics
Deposited On:	2012-01-06
Last Modified:	2015-02-10
Downloads:	0