| Affiliation: | (1) Department of Physics, Section of Astrophysics, Astronomy & Mechanics, University of Thessaloniki, 541 24 Thessaloniki, Greece;(2) Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, 53121 Bonn, Germany |
| Abstract: | 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 morphology: the characteristic pulsar parameters such as pulse shape, pulsar spectrum, polarization and time dependence. We give information on the evolution of pulsars with frequency since this has a direct connection with the emission heights, as postulated in the radius to frequency mapping (RFM) concept. We deal successively with the properties of normal (slow) pulsars and of millisecond (fast-recycled) pulsars. The final chapters give the distribution characteristics of the presently catalogued 1300 objects.Received: 5 December 2003, Published online: 15 April 2004 Correspondence to: Richard Wielebinski |
