An Ensemble Pulsar Time

Patrizia Tavella, Gérard Petit, Claudine Thomas

Abstract:	Millisecond pulsars are galactic objects that exhibit a very stable spinning period. Several tens of these celestial clocks have now been discovered, which opens the possibility that an average time scale may be deduced through a long-term stability algorithm. Such an ensemble average makes it possible to reduce the level of the instabilities originating from the pulsars or from other sources of noise, which are unknown but independent. We present the basis for such an algorithm and apply if to real pulsar data. It is shown that pulsar time could shortly become more stable than the present atomic time, for averaging times of a few years. Pulsar time can also be used as a flywheel to maintain the accuracy of atomic time in case of temporary failure of the primary standards, or to transfer the improved accuracy of future standards back to the present.
Published in:	Proceedings of the 24th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting December 1 - 3, 1992 Ritz-Carlton Hotel McLean, Virginia
Pages:	73 - 86
Cite this article:	Tavella, Patrizia, Petit, Gérard, Thomas, Claudine, "An Ensemble Pulsar Time," Proceedings of the 24th Annual Precise Time and Time Interval Systems and Applications Meeting, McLean, Virginia, December 1992, pp. 73-86.
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