Kavli Affiliate: David N. Spergel
| First 5 Authors: Abigail Moran, Chiara M. F. Mingarelli, Megan Bedell, Deborah Good, David N. Spergel
| Summary:
Pulsar distances are notoriously difficult to measure, and play an important
role in many fundamental physics experiments, such as pulsar timing arrays
(PTAs). Here we perform a cross-match between International PTA pulsars (IPTA)
and Gaia’s DR2 and DR3. We then combine the IPTA pulsar’s parallax with its
binary companion’s parallax, found in Gaia, to improve the distance measurement
to the binary. We find 7 cross-matched IPTA pulsars in Gaia DR2, and when using
Gaia DR3, we find 6 IPTA pulsar cross-matches, but with 7 Gaia objects. Moving
from Gaia DR2 to Gaia DR3, we find that the Gaia parallaxes for the
successfully cross-matched pulsars improved by $53%$, and pulsar distances
improved by $29%$. Finally, we find that binary companions with a $<3.0sigma$
detection are unreliable associations, setting a high bar for successful
cross-matches.
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