MINUTES TIMESCALE SEARCH FOR A PULSAR IN SNR-1987-A

We have searched for minutes to hours timescale optical modulation fro m SNR 1987 A due to occultation of the putative neutron star by passin g dust clouds. For this study, photometric images of the supernova wer e taken at one minute intervals using the NTT at ESO. We did not detec t significant optical variability on this timescale from the supernova against the background of the two nearby stars. Based on our findings , we cannot rule out the possibility of an optical pulsar. However, if the neutron star is temporally obscured, we set an upper limit on the magnitude of the pulsar in the R band 20.1.