Recently, the ‘Research and Observation of Pulsar Rotation Instability’ project of XAO was awarded the first prize of the 2017 Xinjiang Autonomous Region Prize for Progress in Science and Technology. Under the leadership of Dr. Na Wang, the research group of XAO takes the lead in pulsar timing observation by using the radio telescopes in China. It promoted the pulsar observation and research ability of China and also gained series of achievements in international frontiers.

This project makes use of the pulsar timing data that detected by NanShan 25-m Radio Telescope in past 14 years, and the data of other telescopes from China and overseas. Observational technology and data processing method were developed based on the physical mechanism of pulsar rotation instability. The results served to understand the observing features and originating mechanism for pulsar instability, and neutron star magnetosphere physics, interior physics and magnetic field property, as well as deepening the understanding of correlation and influence between radiation characteristic and rotation instability.

The low frequency gravitational waves can be detected by the pulsar timing array, which is significant to understand the property of gravitational wave. Due to the low frequency gravitational wave caused by rotation of super massive binary black hole system, it has obvious important astrophysical implications. The probability of detecting the extremely weak signal of low-frequency gravitational wave, which is masked by pulsar timing noise, will be greatly raised once a better understanding of the underlying mechanism for pulsar rotation instability is available.