Mr Garvin Yim MPhys (Hons) in Physics with Astrophysics
Postgraduate research student
Garvin Yim is a PhD student within the Gravity Group of Mathematical Sciences at the University of Southampton.
My current research involves trying to understand the physical mechanism behind pulsar timing irregularities (glitches and timing noise) through the means of gravitational waves.
In the first of part of my PhD, I created a simple model to explain pulsar glitch recoveries as due to the formation of a transient mountain. This “transient mountain model” predicts transient gravitational waves to be emitted post-glitch and can be searched for in gravitational wave data.
Now, I am considering a physical mechanism to describe pulsar timing noise, which may be related to oscillations on the neutron star. I am mathematically modelling such a system to see if the theory can reproduce what is observed.
Prior to coming to the University of Southampton, my MPhys project involved studies into the radio emission mechanism from pulsars. My MPhys was completed at the University of Manchester (and Jodrell Bank Observatory) and was supervised by Dr. Patrick Weltevrede. In particular, I investigated how the fan-beam model could be used to fit pulse profiles and polarisation data in order to determine a pulsar’s viewing geometry.
In the Summer of 2016, I also worked with Dr. Patrick Weltevrede for a summer research placement. I investigated how the carousel model for pulsar beam patterns could explain the phenomenon of drifting subpulses.