Related papers: Radio pulsars: already fifty years!
The study of pulsars in the three and a half decades since their discovery has highlighted a handful of issues critical to their understanding. To date there is no consensus on the physical mechanism for their radio radio emission, despite…
The mechanism by which the radiation received from obliquely rotating neutron stars is generated remains an open question half a century after the discovery of pulsars. In contrast, considerable progress has recently been made in…
This review describes the observational properties of radio pulsars, fast rotating neutron stars, emitting radio waves. After the introduction we give a list of milestones in pulsar research. The following chapters concentrate on pulsar…
Young radio pulsars shed vast amounts of rotational energy, sometimes as high as 100,000 times the total energy loss rate from the sun. The wide range of phenomena resulting from this energy loss include: glitches, timing noise, jets, bow…
A remarkably precise observational relation for pulse core component widths of radio pulsars is used to derive stringent limits on pulsar radii, strongly indicating that pulsars are strange stars rather than neutron stars. This is achieved…
We collate the evidence for rotation-powered neutron stars that are visible as X-ray sources and not as radio pulsars. Quantitative upper limits exist for the radio fluxes of eight objects, revealing a population at least an order of…
The last decade has shown us that the observational properties of neutron stars are remarkably diverse. From magnetars to rotating radio transients, from radio pulsars to `isolated neutron stars,' from central compact objects to millisecond…
High magnetic fields are a distinguishing feature of neutron stars and the existence of sources (the soft gamma repeaters and the anomalous X-ray pulsars) hosting an ultra-magnetized neutron star (or magnetar) has been recognized in the…
The thesis focuses on different aspects of radio pulsars: on the one hand it describes research on the pulsar emission mechanism (nulling, drifting subpulses, single-pulse polarisation and their mutual interaction). On the other it gives an…
The main reasons for searching for pulsars are to: (i) get an accurate census of the neutron star population and its origin and evolution; (ii) connect neutron stars to other stellar populations in the Galaxy and globular clusters; (iii)…
There are now about fifty known radio pulsars in binary systems, including at least five in double neutron star binaries. In some cases, the stellar masses can be directly determined from measurements of relativistic orbital effects. In…
Variability is a common characteristic of magnetically active stars. Flaring variability is usually interpreted as the observable consequence of transient magnetic reconnection processes happening in the stellar outer atmosphere. Stellar…
The seven known gamma-ray pulsars represent a very small fraction of the more than 1000 presently known radio pulsars, yet they can give us valuable information about pulsar particle acceleration and energetics. Although the theory of…
The understanding of pulsar radio emission demands a close look at all regions of the huge parameter space present for pulsar observations. In this review we concentrate on the space given by the range of observed pulse periods, spanning…
Pulsars are rotating neutron stars which emit lighthouse-like beams. Owing to their unique properties, pulsars are a unique astrophysical tool to test general relativity, inform on matter at extreme densities, and probe galactic magnetic…
Pulsars are rapidly spinning neutron stars, that radiate at the expense of their strong magnetic field and their high surface temperature. Five decades of multi-wavelength observations showed a large variety of physical parameters, such as…
High-energy and radio emission mechanisms for pulsars are reviewed. The source region for high energy emission remains uncertain. Two preferred radio emission mechanism are identified. Some difficulties may be resolved by appealing to…
We summarize our current knowledge of neutron star masses and radii. Recent instrumentation and computational advances have resulted in a rapid increase in the discovery rate and precise timing of radio pulsars in binaries in the last few…
We draw attention to two unanswered questions in radio pulsars' theory. The first one concerns the inclination angles between magnetic and rotation axes. We show that the very existence of interpulse pulsars indicates that all possible…
Well before the radio discovery of pulsars offered the first observational confirmation for their existence (Hewish et al., 1968), it had been suggested that neutron stars might be endowed with very strong magnetic fields of…