Profile morphology and polarization of young pulsars

We present polarization profiles at 1.4 and 3.1 GHz for 14 young pulsars with characteristic ages less than 75 kyr. Careful calibration ensures that the absolute position angle of the linearly polarized radiation at the pulsar is obtained. In combination with previously published data we draw three main conclusions about the pulse profiles of young pulsars. (1) Pulse profiles are simple and consist of either one or two prominent components. (2) The linearly polarized fraction is nearly always in excess of 70 per cent. (3) In profiles with two components the trailing component nearly always dominates, only the trailing component shows circular polarization and the position angle swing is generally flat across the leading component and steep across the trailing component. Based on these results we can make the following generalisations about the emission beams of young pulsars. (1) There is a single, relatively wide cone of emission from near the last open field lines. (2) Core emission is absent or rather weak. (3) The height of the emission is between 1 and 10 per cent of the light cylinder radius.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 16 page

Timing Measurements of the Relativistic Binary Pulsar PSR B1913+16

We present results of more than three decades of timing measurements of the first known binary pulsar, PSR B1913+16. Like most other pulsars, its rotational behavior over such long time scales is significantly affected by small-scale irregularities not explicitly accounted for in a deterministic model. Nevertheless, the physically important astrometric, spin, and orbital parameters are well determined and well decoupled from the timing noise. We have determined a significant result for proper motion, $\mu_{\alpha} = -1.43\pm0.13$, $\mu_{\delta}=-0.70\pm0.13$ mas yr$^{-1}$. The pulsar exhibited a small timing glitch in May 2003, with ${\Delta f}/f=3.7\times10^{-11}$, and a smaller timing peculiarity in mid-1992. A relativistic solution for orbital parameters yields improved mass estimates for the pulsar and its companion, m_1=1.4398\pm0.0002 \ M_{\sun} and m_2=1.3886\pm0.0002 \ M_{\sun}. The system's orbital period has been decreasing at a rate $0.997\pm0.002$ times that predicted as a result of gravitational radiation damping in general relativity. As we have shown before, this result provides conclusive evidence for the existence of gravitational radiation as predicted by Einstein's theory.Comment: Published in APJ, 722, 1030 (2010

Discovery of Pulsed OH Maser Emission Stimulated by a Pulsar

Stimulated emission of radiation has not been directly observed in astrophysical situations up to this time. Here we demonstrate that photons from pulsar B1641-45 stimulate pulses of excess 1720 MHz line emission in an interstellar OH cloud. As this stimulated emission is driven by the pulsar, it varies on a few millisecond timescale, orders of magnitude shorter than the quickest OH maser variations previously detected. Our 1612 MHz spectra are inverted copies of the 1720 MHz spectra. This "conjugate line" phenomenon enables us to constrain the properties of the interstellar OH line-producing gas. We also show that pulsar signals suffer significantly deeper OH absorption than do other background sources; confirming earlier tentative findings that OH clouds are clumpier on small scales than neutral hydrogen clouds.Comment: Accepted by Scienc

Pulsar Studies of Tiny-Scale Structure in the Neutral ISM

We describe the use of pulsars to study small-scale neutral structure in the interstellar medium (ISM). Because pulsars are high velocity objects, the pulsarEarth line of sight sweeps rapidly across the ISM. Multiepoch measurements of pulsar interstellar spectral line spectra therefore probe ISM structures on AU scales. We review pulsar measurements of small scale structure in HI and OH and compare these results with those obtained through other techniques

A Simple Model for Pulse Profiles from Precessing Pulsars, with Special Application to Relativistic Binary PSR B1913+16

We study the observable pulse profiles that can be generated from precessing pulsars. A novel coordinate system is defined to aid visualization of the observing geometry. Using this system we explore the different families of profiles that can be generated by simple, circularly symmetric beam shapes. An attempt is then made to fit our model to the observations of relativistic binary PSR B1913+16. It is found that while qualitatively similar pulse profiles can be produced, this minimal model is insufficient for an accurate match to the observational data. Consequently, we confirm that the emission beam of PSR B1913+16 must deviate from circular symmetry, as first reported by Weisberg and Taylor. However, the approximate fits obtained suggest that it may be sufficient to consider only minimal deviations from a circular beam in order to explain the data. We also comment on the applicability of our analysis technique to other precessing pulsars, both binary and isolated.Comment: 35 pages and 8 figures. Published versio