A simulation technique of X-ray pulsar signals with high timing stability

A simulation experiment system is required presently, for the space flight experiment of X-ray pulsar based navigation is very costly. To solve the crucial issues of the timing stability and the profile precision in existing simulation techniques of pulsar signal, a new simulation technique which utilizes visible light is proposed. The simulation experiment system is set up based on the proposed technique. And some experiments are carried out to test the proposed technique. The results demonstrate that the proposed technique can be used to simulate any of known pulsars. The timing stability of simulated X-ray pulsars is raised from 10-4 to 10-9. And the accuracy of pulsar profile simulation is noticeably improved. Within the X-ray band 1-10 keV, when the observation time reaches 1200 s, and the area of the X-ray detector is 1 m2, the Pearson correlation coefficient of pulsar's observation profile with the standard template profile arrives at 0.993. And the simulation experiment system can be realized with high flexibility and low cost. On the basis of the simulation experiment system, the signal characteristic of X-ray pulsar can be investigated. On the other hand, the performances of X-ray pulsar signal processing algorithms and navigation algorithms can be surveyed in detail.