#1 Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Parkes PMPS XT) "BRP6"
Posted: Tue Mar 03, 2015 8:09 pm
New project started on Einstein.
Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Parkes PMPS XT) "BRP6"
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/forum_thre ... 161#138201
the following is to give you a bit more background on the new binary radio pulsar search "BRP6" aka "PMPS XT" is about. The data your GPUs will be analyzing are archival observations from the Parkes Telescope in Australia, from the very successful Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey (PMPS).
The very same data set has been previously analyzed using Einstein@Home in the BRP3 (PMPS) , which led to the discovery of 24 new radio pulsars, including quite a few interesting ones. You can read up on all the details and discoveries in the publication "Einstein@Home Discovery of 24 Pulsars in the Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey", which is available for free on the arXiv.http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.0467
When we planned and conducted this first analysis we where limited by the available computing power on Einstein@Home, which at that time forced us to limit our search to pulsars spinning with at most 130 Hz. Searching for faster spinning pulsars in binaries requires more templates, and the dependence on the spin frequency is pretty steep (f^3 for the experts). In the concluding paragraphs of the publication we speculated on what kind of searches we might be able to do in the future, assuming the usual (Moore's law) growth in computing power over time. Extrapolating from the computing power and apps back the we estimated that within a decade we would be able to re-do our analysis and search up to 250 Hz.
Here we are, a bit more than four years after the start of the BRP3 PMPS search. Improvements in the Nvidia BRP GPU apps and the development of an ATI/AMD GPU app allow us to already now extend our search range up to pulsar spin frequencies of 300 Hz. And that is precisely what BRP6 will do. With your help we will re-analyze the PMPS data and look for faster spinning pulsars in tight binary systems. Scientifically speaking, this is very interesting territority: fast-spinning (millisecond) pulsars in short-orbital-period binaries are an extremely exciting class of astronomical objects. One can do precise tests of general relativity with them, study stellar evolution, and get a more complete picture of the pulsar population in our Galaxy.
The PMPS data set still is quite large with over 41,000 individual observations. At the current computing power it would take about three years to conduct this very thorough analysis that nobody has ever done before. During this time, however, if the available computing power keeps growing as expected, the actual time to completion will be less.
Binary Radio Pulsar Search (Parkes PMPS XT) "BRP6"
http://einstein.phys.uwm.edu/forum_thre ... 161#138201
the following is to give you a bit more background on the new binary radio pulsar search "BRP6" aka "PMPS XT" is about. The data your GPUs will be analyzing are archival observations from the Parkes Telescope in Australia, from the very successful Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey (PMPS).
The very same data set has been previously analyzed using Einstein@Home in the BRP3 (PMPS) , which led to the discovery of 24 new radio pulsars, including quite a few interesting ones. You can read up on all the details and discoveries in the publication "Einstein@Home Discovery of 24 Pulsars in the Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey", which is available for free on the arXiv.http://arxiv.org/abs/1302.0467
When we planned and conducted this first analysis we where limited by the available computing power on Einstein@Home, which at that time forced us to limit our search to pulsars spinning with at most 130 Hz. Searching for faster spinning pulsars in binaries requires more templates, and the dependence on the spin frequency is pretty steep (f^3 for the experts). In the concluding paragraphs of the publication we speculated on what kind of searches we might be able to do in the future, assuming the usual (Moore's law) growth in computing power over time. Extrapolating from the computing power and apps back the we estimated that within a decade we would be able to re-do our analysis and search up to 250 Hz.
Here we are, a bit more than four years after the start of the BRP3 PMPS search. Improvements in the Nvidia BRP GPU apps and the development of an ATI/AMD GPU app allow us to already now extend our search range up to pulsar spin frequencies of 300 Hz. And that is precisely what BRP6 will do. With your help we will re-analyze the PMPS data and look for faster spinning pulsars in tight binary systems. Scientifically speaking, this is very interesting territority: fast-spinning (millisecond) pulsars in short-orbital-period binaries are an extremely exciting class of astronomical objects. One can do precise tests of general relativity with them, study stellar evolution, and get a more complete picture of the pulsar population in our Galaxy.
The PMPS data set still is quite large with over 41,000 individual observations. At the current computing power it would take about three years to conduct this very thorough analysis that nobody has ever done before. During this time, however, if the available computing power keeps growing as expected, the actual time to completion will be less.
