Related papers: Why study pulsars optically?
We show that observations of pulsars with pulsed optical emission indicate that the peak flux scales according to the magnetic field strength at the light cylinder. The derived relationships indicate that the emission mechanism is common…
Observations of the 5 confirmed optical pulsars indicate that the peak emission scales according to the outer field strength. We show that this gives gives further confirmation that a simple phenomenological models such as Pacini and…
Over the last fifty years since the discovery of pulsars, our understanding of where and how pulsars emit the radiation we observe has undergone significant revision. The location and mechanisms of high-energy radiation are intimately tied…
Thirty-five years after the discovery of rotation-powered pulsars, we still do not understand the fundamentals of their pulsed emission at any wavelength. Even detailed pulse profiles cannot identify the location of the emission in a…
Polarization measurements provide strong constraints on models for emission from rotation-powered pulsars. We present multiwavelength polarization predictions showing that measurements over a range of frequencies can be particularly…
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…
We have conducted observations of 22 pulsars at frequencies of 0.7, 1.4 and 3.1 GHz and present their polarization profiles. The observations were carried out for two main purposes. First we compare the orientation of the spin and velocity…
We present polarisation observations of five pulsars whose profiles exhibit two distinct emission regions separated by close to 180 degrees of longitude. We fitted the position angle of the linear polarisation using the rotating vector…
The number of pulsars with detected emission at X-ray and gamma-ray energies has been steadily growing, showing that beams of high-energy particles are commonly accelerated in pulsar magnetospheres, even though the location and number of…
We present an inverse mapping approach to determining the emission height of the optical photons from pulsars, which is directly constrained by empirical data. The model discussed is for the case of the Crab pulsar. Our method, using the…
Optical data in the V-band gathered with the 8.2m ESO Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the radio interferometric position of PSR 1706-44 are presented. The pulsar is close to a bright star in projection and was not detected. The pulsar…
We have observed a total of 67 pulsars at five frequencies ranging from 243 to 3100 MHz. Observations at the lower frequencies were made at the Giant Metre Wave Telescope in India and those at higher frequencies at the Parkes Telescope in…
We investigate the strong electric current sheet that develops at the tip of the pulsar closed line region through time dependent three-dimensional numerical simulations of a rotating magnetic dipole. We show that curvature radiation from…
Emission spectrum is calculated for a weak axisymmetric pulsar. Also calculated are the observed spectrum, efficiency, and the observed efficiency. The underlying flow of electrons and positrons turns out to be curiously intricate.
Radio observations from normal pulsars indicate that the coherent radio emission is excited by curvature radiation from charge bunches. In this review we provide a systematic description of the various observational constraints on the radio…
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…
This paper presents a method of estimation of emission altitudes using observational data - precise measurements of pulse profile widths at low intensity level. The analysis of emission altitudes obtained using this method for a large…
Searching for the physical mechanism that can excite the coherent radio emission in pulsars is still an enigmatic problem. A wealth of high quality observations exist, which over the years have been instrumental in putting stringent…
Although less than 1% of all radio pulsars are detected at optical wavelengths, their optical emission can yield a wealth of information that is either very difficult or plainly impossible to obtain at other wavelengths.
In the canonical model of a pulsar, rotational energy is transmitted through the surrounding plasma via two electrical circuits, each connecting to the star over a small region known as a "polar cap." For a dipole-magnetized star, the polar…