Recent Pulsar Discoveries
Matthew Bailes (Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratories,
University of Manchester, England.)
Simon Johnston (Australia Telescope National Facility, CSIRO, Australia.)
Introduction Twenty-five years after their discovery (Hewish et al. 1968), radio pulsars remain one of astronomy's most exciting fields. The basic model of a pulsar as a highly magnetized, rotating neutron star which emits a beam of radio radiation is now widely accepted. However, many issues remain controversial including radio pulsar emission mechanisms and many aspects of their origin and evolution. This paper is intended for the non-specialist, and we seek to provide an overview of the exciting advances in observational pulsar astronomy over the last five years. We will begin with a brief history of the field prior to this period, before discussing the results of recent pulsar searches and advances in our understanding of the origin and evolution of pulsars. There are an increasing number of excellent conference proceedings and review articles on this subject with varying degrees of complexity. Interested readers should consult \scite{ts86,hh87,sri89,ov89,ls90,bk90,bv91,vp91,hrg92} and references therein.