A New Emission Mode of PSR B1859+07

Abstract

Previous studies have identified two emission modes in PSR B1859+07: a normal mode that has three prominent components in the average profile, with the trailing one being the brightest, and an anomalous mode (i.e., the A mode) where emissions seem to be shifted to an earlier phase. Within the normal mode, further analysis has revealed the presence of two submodes, i.e., the cW mode and cB mode, where the central component can appear either weak or bright. As for the anomalous mode, a new bright component emerges in the advanced phase while the bright trailing component in the normal mode disappears. New observations of PSR B1859+07 using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) have revealed the existence of a previously unknown emission mode, dubbed the Af mode. In this mode, all emission components seen in the normal and anomalous modes are detected. Notably, the mean polarization profiles of both the A and Af modes exhibit a jump in the orthogonal polarization angle modes in the bright leading component. The polarization angles for the central component in the original normal mode follow two distinct orthogonal polarization modes in the A and Af modes respectively. The polarization angles for the trailing component show almost the same but a small systematic shift in the A and Af modes, roughly following the values for the cW and cB modes. Those polarization features of this newly detected emission mode imply that the anomalous mode A of PSR B1859+07 is not a result of “phase shift” or “swooshes” of normal components, but simply a result of the varying intensities of different profile components. Additionally, subpulse drifting has been detected in the leading component of the Af mode.