Radio and X-ray observations of the intermittent pulsar J1832+0029

We report on radio and X-ray observations of PSR J1832+0029, a 533ms radio pulsar discovered in the Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey. From radio observations taken with the Parkes, Lovell, and Arecibo telescopes, we show that this pulsar exhibits two spin-down states akin to PSRs B1931+24 reported by Kramer etal. and J1841-0500 reported by Camilo etal. Unlike PSR B1931+24, which switches between "on" and "off" states on a 30-40day timescale, PSR J1832+0029 is similar to PSR J1841-0500 in that it spends a much longer period of time in the off-state. So far, we have fully sampled two off-states. The first one lasted between 560 and 640days and the second one lasted between 810 and 835days. From our radio timing observations, the ratio of on/off spin-down rates is 1.77 ± 0.03. Chandra observations carried out during both the on- and off-states of this pulsar failed to detect any emission. Our results challenge but do not rule out models involving accretion onto the neutron star from a low-mass stellar companion. In spite of the small number of intermittent pulsars currently known, difficulties in discovering them and in quantifying their behavior imply that their total population could be substantial.