[183.06] The Parallax and Proper Motion of PSR J0030+0451

AAS 207th Meeting, 8-12 January 2006
Session 183 Radio and X-Ray Pulsars
Poster, Thursday, 9:20am-4:00pm, January 12, 2006, Exhibit Hall

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[183.06] The Parallax and Proper Motion of PSR J0030+0451

A. N. Lommen, R. A. Kipphorn (Franklin and Marshall College), D. J. Nice (Bryn Mawr College), E. M. Splaver (Princeton University), I. H. Stairs (UBC), D. C. Backer (UC Berkeley)

We report the parallax and proper motion of millisecond pulsar J0030+0451, one of thirteen known isolated millisecond pulsars. We obtained more than 6 years of monthly data from the 305 m Arecibo telescope at 430 MHz and 1410 MHz. We measure the parallax of PSR J0030+0451 to be 3.4±0.6 mas, corresponding to a distance of 294±54 pc. This distance agrees with the Cordes and Lazio (2002) model of galactic electron distribution which gives a dispersion measure derived distance of 317 pc. We place an upper limit on the pulsar's transverse space velocity of 16 km s^-1, making this pulsar one of the slowest known. We perform a brief census of velocities of isolated versus binary millisecond pulsars. We find the velocities of the two populations are indistinguishable. However, the scale height of the binary population is twice that of the isolated population and the luminosity functions are unique. We suggest that the scale height difference may be an artifact of the luminosity difference.

ANL acknowledges a Research Corporation award in support of this research.

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