TEMPO2, a new pulsar-timing package - I. An overview

By G. Hobbs, Russell T. Edwards, R. Manchester. 2006

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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.

Subfields: Aerospace Engineering, Astronomy and Astrophysics, Oceanography

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/f9beb5f44c8c6a7f00150f953adedc4260080a9a

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Citations in the corpus

Constraining the Neutron Star Mass–Radius Relation and Dense Matter Equation of State with NICER. I. The Millisecond Pulsar X-Ray Data Set (2019, methodology): “Software:HEAsoft (Nasa High Energy Astrophysics Science Archive Research Center (Heasarc), 2014), Tempo2 (Hobbs et al. 2006), PINT (https://github.com/nanograv/ pint), XSPEC (Arnaud 1996), NICERSoft (https://github. com/paulray/NICERsoft).”
Pulsar timing analysis in the presence of correlated noise (2011, methodology): “In Table 2 we show the ratio of the rms of the parameter variation in the 100 realisations with the mean parameter uncertainty reported by Tempo2.”
The Parkes Pulsar Timing Array Project (2006, methodology): “A major component of this was the development of the Tempo2 pulsar timing analysis package, described by Hobbs et al. (2006), Edwards et al. (2006), and Hobbs et al. (2009a).”
GAMMA-RAY ACTIVITY IN THE CRAB NEBULA: THE EXCEPTIONAL FLARE OF 2011 APRIL (2011, methodology): “Using tempo2 (Hobbs et al. 2006), we fitted a timing solution to these TOAs with a typical residual of 108 μs, or about 3 × 10−3 of the pulsar period.”
Detection of 107 glitches in 36 southern pulsars (2012, methodology): “For each pulsar data set exhibiting a possible glitch, we used the glitch plugin of Tempo2 to determine the variations of the pulse frequency and its first time derivative as a function of time.”
ARCONS: A 2024 Pixel Optical through Near-IR Cryogenic Imaging Spectrophotometer (2013, methodology): “These timestamps can then be corrected to solar system barycentric times with the TEMPO2 pulsar timing package (Hobbs et al. 2006) using a custom plug-in that allows it to treat photons individually.”
Searching for the Nano-Hertz Stochastic Gravitational Wave Background with the Chinese Pulsar Timing Array Data Release I (2023, methodology): “The pulsar timing models were created using the software package TEMPO2 (Hobbs et al. 2006).”
A NICER View of PSR J0030+0451: Millisecond Pulsar Parameter Estimation (2019, methodology): “…(Dalćın et al. 2008), Matplotlib (Hunter 2007; Droettboom et al. 2018), IPython (Perez & Granger 2007), Jupyter (Kluyver et al. 2016),tempo2 (photons; Hobbs et al. 2006), PINT (photonphase; https://github.com/nanograv/ PINT), MultiNest (Feroz et al. 2009), PyMultiNest (Buchner et al. 2014),…”
European Pulsar Timing Array Limits on Continuous Gravitational Waves from Individual Supermassive Black Hole Binaries (2015, methodology): “…MNRAS 000, 1–16 have also been done in the frequency domain using the TempoNest plugin (Lentati et al. 2014) for the Tempo2 pulsar timing package (Hobbs et al. 2006), and in time domain using search method combining a genetic algorithm (Petiteau et al. 2010) with MCMCHammer (Foreman-Mackey et…”
The glitch-induced identity changes of PSR J1119−6127 (2010, methodology): “Clock corrections were applied to the TOAs which were then converted to arrival times at the solar system barycentre using the DE405 model (Edwards et al. 2006; Standish 1998) using the TEMPO2 timing package (Hobbs et al. 2006).”
Timing analysis for 20 millisecond pulsars in the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array (2015, methodology): “Throughout this paper, we make use of the TEMPO2 software package to analyse the pulse arrival times (Hobbs et al. 2006).”
Precision Timing of PSR J0437–4715: An Accurate Pulsar Distance, a High Pulsar Mass, and a Limit on the Variation of Newton’s Gravitational Constant (2008, methodology): “The arrival times were analyzed using the Tempo2 pulsar timing software package (Hobbs et al. 2006; Edwards et al. 2006) and consistency with the earlier program, Tempo, was verified.”
Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star (2010, methodology): “The observed arrival times are compared with the model prediction, and best-fit parameters are obtained via χ(2) minimization, using the TEMPO2 software package[11].”