tempo2, a new pulsar-timing package - I. An overview

TLDR

Contemporary pulsar‑timing experiments have reached a sensitivity where systematic errors from existing analysis procedures limit achievable science, and tempo2 offers a generic, extensible toolkit for analysis and visualization of pulsar‑timing data. The authors provide an overview of the timing model, its accuracy and differences from earlier work, and introduce a new predictive scheme that removes processing artefacts by properly modelling the frequency dependence of pulse phase. Tempo2 is compliant with the IAU 1991 and 2000 relativistic framework, using the International Celestial Reference System, Barycentric Coordinate Time, and up‑to‑date precession, nutation, and polar motion models. Tempo2 implements propagation and other relevant effects at 1‑ns precision, about 100 times more precise than before, demonstrating significant improvement over earlier packages.

Abstract

Contemporary pulsar-timing experiments have reached a sensitivity level where systematic errors introduced by existing analysis procedures are limiting the achievable science. We have developed tempo2, a new pulsar-timing package that contains propagation and other relevant effects implemented at the 1-ns level of precision (a factor of ∼100 more precise than previously obtainable). In contrast with earlier timing packages, tempo2 is compliant with the general relativistic framework of the IAU 1991 and 2000 resolutions and hence uses the International Celestial Reference System, Barycentric Coordinate Time and up-to-date precession, nutation and polar motion models. tempo2 provides a generic and extensible set of tools to aid in the analysis and visualization of pulsar-timing data. We provide an overview of the timing model, its accuracy and differences relative to earlier work. We also present a new scheme for predictive use of the timing model that removes existing processing artefacts by properly modelling the frequency dependence of pulse phase.