New Phase-coherent Measurements of Pulsar Braking Indices

Abstract

Pulsar braking indices offer insight into the physics that underlies pulsar spin-down. Only five braking indices have been measured via phase-coherent timing; all measured values are less than 3, the value expected from magnetic dipole radiation. Here we present new measurements for three of the five pulsar braking indices, obtained with phase-coherent timing for PSRs J1846-0258 (n=2.65+/-0.01), B1509-58 (n=2.839+/-0.001) and B0540-69 (n=2.140+/-0.009). We discuss the implications of these results and possible physical explanations for them.