We have carried out a deep search at 1.4 GHz for radio pulsed emission from
six soft X-ray transient sources observed during their X-ray quiescent phase.
The commonly accepted model for the formation of the millisecond radio pulsars
predicts the presence of a rapidly rotating, weakly magnetized neutron star in
the core of these systems. The sudden drop in accretion rate associated with
the end of an X-ray outburst causes the Alfv\`en surface to move outside the
light cylinder, allowing the pulsar emission process to operate. No pulsed
signal was detected from the sources in our sample. We discuss several
mechanisms that could hamper the detection and suggest that free-free
absorption from material ejected from the system by the pulsar radiation
pressure could explain our null result.Comment: accepted by Ap
