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Scientific achievements, Galaxy sector

Speckle interferometry of R Leo at the 6-m BTA telescope
The measurements of the apparent diameter of a long-period variable star R Leo, a cold pulsating giant in the last stage of evolution, the scales of which are hundreds of times larger than the Sun were conducted at the 6-m BTA telescope. We succeeded to accumulate homogeneous data on its apparent diameter in different phases of pulsation, from 0.043 to 0.056 arcsec with record accuracy of 0.002 arcsec. The asymmetry of the stellar profile was discovered during the observations in the H alpha line and in the absorption band of the titanium oxide TiO molecule. The obtained results help to explain the nature of the pulsations of this rare class of stars.
(Contact - V.V.Dyachenko)

Detection of the millennial cyclical component in the evolution of rotation of single radio pulsars
Based on the analysis of properties of three hundred radio pulsars, the existence of millenary cycles in the slowdown of their rotation was discovered. This phenomenon seems to be associated with the complex rotation of the neutron star, precessing about the direction of its magnetic moment. The discovered effect explains the observed anomalously large values of the pulsar slowdown indices, as well as the known differences in the estimates of their ages with the ages of the corresponding supernova remnants. The parameters of cyclical and secular components of dragging were determined for the first time. The latter proved to be close to the modern predicted models of the pulsar energy loss.
In collaboration with the SAI MSU
(Contact - G.M.Beskin)
Published: Astrophysical Bulletin, 2011, v.66, p.478
MNRAS, 2012, v.420, p.103

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