Window-threshold technique for detecting pulse components

Abstract

We have analysed high-quality single pulse data of PSR B0329+54 at 606 MHz to study the structure of the emission beam. In order to unambiguously detect weak emission components in the integrated pulse profile, we have developed a new data analysis technique, which we term "window-thresholding". Applying this technique to the data, we have detected three new emission components for this pulsar and confirmed the presence of a component which was proposed earlier. Hence our analysis indicates that PSR B0329+54 has nine components, which is among the highest of all the known pulsars. The symmetric distribution of pulse components about the pulse centre, defined to be midway between the centres of the outer components, indicates that the emission beam is conal.