The giant pulse population of PSR B0355+54

Abstract

Giant pulses are rare bright radio bursts that occur in restricted ranges of pulsar rotational phase. Here we report giant pulses from PSR B0355+54, a pulsar with spin period ~0.156 s. Using 7.97 hours of observations centred at 1.46 GHz, with 128 MHz bandwidth in each circular polarizations, we identify 432 pulse periods containing bright pulses. The giant pulses recur in two compact longitude regions inside the radio emission window. They are narrow compared with the mean profile, with median W50=290.3 us, and reach relative peak flux density ratios up to 149.7. The early longitude group has a timing scatter of 139.7 us, or 0.00089 of a rotation. The first longitude group favours right, while the second favours left circular polarization.