• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.6
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• pp.171-183
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• 2018

To celebrate the tenth anniversary since the launch of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope, we take a retrospect to a series of breakthroughs Fermi has contributed to pulsar astronomy in the last decade. Apart from significantly enlarging the population of ${\gamma}$-ray pulsars, observations with the Large Area Telescope onboard Fermi also show the population is not homogeneous. Instead, many classes and sub-classes have been revealed. In this paper, we will review the properties of different types of ${\gamma}$-ray pulsars, including radio-quiet ${\gamma}$-ray pulsars, millisecond pulsars, ${\gamma}$-ray binaries. Also, we will discuss the prospects of pulsar astronomy in the high energy regime.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.41-47
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• 2019

We report on the timing properties of the 'Crab twin' pulsar PSR B0540-69 measured with X-ray data taken with the Swift telescope over a period of 1100 days. The braking index of the pulsar was estimated to be $n=0.03{\pm}0.013$ in a previous study performed in 2015 with 500-day Swift data. This small value of n is unusual for pulsars, and a comparison with an old estimate of $n{\approx}2.1$ for the same target determined ~10 years earlier suggests a dramatic change in the braking index. To confirm the small value and therefore the large change of n, we used 1100-day Swift observations including the data used in the earlier determination of n = 0.03. In this study we find that the braking index of PSR B0540-69 is $n=0.163{\pm}0.001$, somewhat larger than 0.03. Since the measured value of n is still much smaller than 2.1, we can confirm the dramatic change in the braking index for this pulsar.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.51 no.5
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• pp.165-170
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• 2018

The Galactic Center is one of the most dense stellar environments in the Galaxy and is considered to be a plausible place to harbor many neutron stars. In this brief review, we summarize observational efforts in search of neutron stars within a few degrees about the Galactic Center. Up to 10% of Galactic neutron stars may reside in this central region and it is possible that more than a thousand neutron stars are located within only ~ 2500 (${\leq}1pc$) about the Galactic Center. Based on observations, we discuss prospects of detecting neutron stars in the Galactic Center via gravitational waves as well as electromagnetic waves.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2021

We report X-ray timing and spectral properties of the pulsar PSR J0205+6449 measured using NuSTAR and Chandra observatories. We measure the pulsar's rotation frequency ν = 15.20102357(9) s-1 and its derivative $\dot{\nu}=-4.5(1){\times}10^{-11}\;s^{-2}$ during the observation period, and model the 2-30 keV on-pulse spectrum of the pulsar with a power law having a photon index Γpsr = 1.07 ± 0.16 and a 2-30 keV flux F2-30 keV = 7.3±0.6 × 10-13 erg cm-2 s-1. The Chandra 0.5-10 keV data are analyzed for an investigation of the pulsar's thermal emission properties. We use thermal and non-thermal emission models to fit the Chandra spectra and infer the surface temperature T∞ and luminosity Lth of the neutron star to be T∞ = 0.5 - 0.8 MK and Lth = 1 - 5 × 1032 erg s-1. This agrees with previous results which indicated that PSR J0205+6449 has a low surface temperature and luminosity for its age of 800-5600 yrs.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.77.1-77.1
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• 2014

Gravitational waves predicted by the general relativity almost 100 years ago have been implicated indirectly only by astrophysical observations such as the orbital evolution of binary pulsars. The advanced detectors of gravitational waves will become operational in a few years and they are expected to make direct detection of gravitational wave signal coming from merging of binaries composed of neutron stars or stellar mass black holes from external galaxies. Korean Gravitational Wave Group (KGWG) is contributing to the possible detection through the data analysis of LIGO and Virgo. We summarize the perspectives of the gravitational wave research and the impacts of the detection in the near future in astronomy and astrophysics.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.29 no.1
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• pp.19-30
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• 1996

We have examined consequences of strong tidal encounters between a neutron star and a normal star using SPH as a possible formation mechanism of isolated recycled pulsars in globular clusters. We have made a number of SPH simulations for close encounters between a main-sequence star of mass ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 $M_\bigodot$ represented by an n=3/2 poly trope and a neutron star represented by a point mass. The outcomes of the first encounters are found to be dependent only on the dimensionless parameter $\eta'{\equiv}(m/(m+ M))^{1/2}(\gamma_{min}/R_{MS})^{3/2}(m/M)^{{1/6)}$, where m and M are the mass of the main-sequence star and the neutron star, respectively, $\gamma_{min}$ the minimum separation between two stars, and $R_{MS}$ the size of the main-sequence star. The material from the (at least partially) disrupted star forms a disk around the neutron star. If all material in the disk is to be acctreted onto the neutron star's surface, the mass of the disk is enough to spin up the neutron star to spin period of 1 ms.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.1
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• pp.41-57
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• 2023

We measured temporal and emission properties of quiescent magnetars using archival Chandra and XMM-Newton data, produced a list of the properties for 17 magnetars, and revisited previously suggested correlations between the properties. Our studies carried out with a larger sample, better spectral characterizations, and more thorough analyses not only confirmed previously-suggested correlations but also found new ones. The observed correlations differ from those seen in other neutron-star populations but generally accord with magnetar models. Specifically, the trends of the intriguing correlations of blackbody luminosity (L_BB) with the spin-inferred dipole magnetic field strength (B_S) and characteristic age (τ_c) were measured to be L_BB ∝ B^1.5_S and L_BB ∝ τ^-0.6_c, supporting the twisted magnetosphere and magnetothermal evolution models for magnetars. We report the analysis results and discuss our findings in the context of magnetar models.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.71-87
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• 2011

Gravitational waves are predicted by the Einstein's theory of General Relativity. The direct detection of gravitational waves is one of the most challenging tasks in modern science and engineering due to the 'weak' nature of gravity. Recent development of the laser interferometer technology, however, makes it possible to build a detector on Earth that is sensitive up to 100-1000 Mpc for strong sources. It implies an expected detection rate of neutron star mergers, which are one of the most important targets for ground-based detectors, ranges between a few to a few hundred per year. Therefore, we expect that the gravitational-wave observation will be routine within several years. Strongest gravitational-wave sources include tight binaries composed of compact objects, supernova explosions, gamma-ray bursts, mergers of supermassive black holes, etc. Together with the electromagnetic waves, the gravitational wave observation will allow us to explore the most exotic nature of astrophysical objects as well as the very early evolution of the universe. This review provides a comprehensive overview of the theory of gravitational waves, principles of detections, gravitational-wave detectors, astrophysical sources of gravitational waves, and future prospects.