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Pulsar Science with the SKA Observatory

Bhal Chandra Joshi, Aris Karastergiou, Marta Burgay, The SKA pulsar science working group

TL;DR

The paper outlines how the SKAO’s two-telescope system (SKA-Low and SKA-Mid) and its phased deployment (AA*, AA4) will transform pulsar science, enabling an immediate leap in discovery power and long-term population-level insights. It details instrument capabilities, including frequency coverage from $50\mathrm{MHz}$ to $15\mathrm{GHz}$, multi-beam tied-array operations, and two CSP subsystems (PST and PSS) supporting real-time searches and high-precision timing. It then maps science across pulsar census, globular clusters, Galactic Centre, magnetospheres, plasma and magnetic fields, PWNe, gravity tests in binaries, and neutron-star interiors, emphasizing the links between surveys, timing, and multi-messenger observations. The work argues that SKAO will advance fundamental physics, gravitational-wave astronomy, and Galactic astrophysics by delivering both a comprehensive pulsar census and transformative tests of gravity and dense matter in the coming decade.

Abstract

The large instantaneous sensitivity, a wide frequency coverage and flexible observation modes with large number of beams in the sky are the main features of the SKA observatory's two telescopes, the SKA-Low and the SKA-Mid, which are located on two different continents. Owing to these capabilities, the SKAO telescopes are going to be a game-changer for radio astronomy in general and pulsar astronomy in particular. The eleven articles in this special issue on pulsar science with the SKA Observatory describe its impact on different areas of pulsar science. In this lead article, a brief description of the two telescopes highlighting the relevant features for pulsar science is presented followed by an overview of each accompanying article, exploring the inter-relationship between different pulsar science use cases.

Pulsar Science with the SKA Observatory

TL;DR

The paper outlines how the SKAO’s two-telescope system (SKA-Low and SKA-Mid) and its phased deployment (AA*, AA4) will transform pulsar science, enabling an immediate leap in discovery power and long-term population-level insights. It details instrument capabilities, including frequency coverage from to , multi-beam tied-array operations, and two CSP subsystems (PST and PSS) supporting real-time searches and high-precision timing. It then maps science across pulsar census, globular clusters, Galactic Centre, magnetospheres, plasma and magnetic fields, PWNe, gravity tests in binaries, and neutron-star interiors, emphasizing the links between surveys, timing, and multi-messenger observations. The work argues that SKAO will advance fundamental physics, gravitational-wave astronomy, and Galactic astrophysics by delivering both a comprehensive pulsar census and transformative tests of gravity and dense matter in the coming decade.

Abstract

The large instantaneous sensitivity, a wide frequency coverage and flexible observation modes with large number of beams in the sky are the main features of the SKA observatory's two telescopes, the SKA-Low and the SKA-Mid, which are located on two different continents. Owing to these capabilities, the SKAO telescopes are going to be a game-changer for radio astronomy in general and pulsar astronomy in particular. The eleven articles in this special issue on pulsar science with the SKA Observatory describe its impact on different areas of pulsar science. In this lead article, a brief description of the two telescopes highlighting the relevant features for pulsar science is presented followed by an overview of each accompanying article, exploring the inter-relationship between different pulsar science use cases.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 14 sections, 2 figures.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. The SKAO telescopes and pulsar observations
  3. State of the art and expected SKAO discoveries
  4. The SKA Pulsar Census (Keane et al.)
  5. Pulsars in Globular Clusters (Bagchi et al.)
  6. Galactic Centre Pulsars (Abbate et al.)
  7. The Galactic Neutron Star Population (Levin et al.)
  8. Pulsar Magnetospheres (Oswald et al.)
  9. Galactic Plasma Studies (Tiburzi et al.)
  10. Galactic Magnetic Fields (Xu et al.)
  11. Pulsar Wind Nebulae (Gelfand et al.)
  12. Testing Gravity with Binary Pulsars (Venkatraman Krishnan et al.)
  13. Probing Neutron Star Interiors and Dense Matter (Basu et al.)
  14. The SKAO Pulsar Timing Array (Shannon et al.)

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: The discovery of pulsars has approximately occurred at an exponential rate with time, matching developments in new telescope hardware and software. The significant increase in the last decade corresponds to commencement of operation of upgraded GMRT, MeerKAT and FAST instruments. Current telescopes and future assemblies of the SKAO will continue this trend.
  • Figure 2: The inter-connected pulsar science use cases for the SKAO, described in this special issue, are depicted here. The surveys shown at the bottom form the backbone of the study of different areas depicted in the middle row. The enhanced understanding in the latter will feed into the three main contributions to fundamental physics from pulsar astronomy, which are shown in the top row.