Nature of cyclical changes in the timing residuals from the pulsar B1642-03

Abstract

We report an analysis of timing data for the pulsar B1642-03 (J1645-0317) gathered over the 40-year time span between 1969 and 2008. During this interval, the pulsar experienced eight glitch-like events with a fractional increase in the rotation frequency Deltanu/nu=(0.9-2.6)x10^{-9}. We have revealed two important relations in the properties of these peculiar glitches. The first result shows that there is a strong linear correlation between the amplitude of the glitch and the time interval to the next glitch. The second result shows that the amplitude of the glitches is modulated by a periodic large-scale sawtooth-like function. As a result of this modulation, the glitch amplitude varies discretely from glitch to glitch with a step of 1.5x10^{-9} Hz in the range (2.4-6.9)x10^{-9} Hz. The post-glitch time interval also varies discretely with a step of about 600 days in the range 900-2700 days. An analysis of the data showed that three modulation schemes with modulation periods of 43 years, 53 years and 60 years are possible. The best model is the 60-year modulation scheme including 12 glitches. We make a conclusion that the nature of the observed cyclical changes in the timing residuals from PSR B1642-03 is a continuous generation of peculiar glitches whose amplitudes are modulated by a periodic large-scale sawtooth-like function. As the modulation function is periodical, the picture of cyclical timing residuals will be exactly repeated in each modulation period or every 60 years.