NEWS

The pulsar group is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility, a division of the CSIRO. The ATNF operates the Parkes radio telescope (seen in the photograph above) where the majority of our observations are carried out. We study many aspects of pulsar astronomy including pulsar timing, the origin and evolution of pulsars, pulsar emission properties and mechanisms, scintillation studies and the structure and evolution of supernova remnants. The ATNF Pulsar Educational Page gives a broad overview of pulsar properties, observations and current research projects. A more detailed introduction to pulsar research can be found in the Jodrell Bank Observatory Tutorial on Radio Pulsars.

Recently our group developed the web-based ATNF Pulsar Catalogue, which provides comprehensive information on all published pulsars. The step-by-step tutorial describes a variety of available queries including display formats.

Visit this link for a listing of the pulsar group members

A list of publications containing pulsar group authors can be found here.

The main activities of the group are:

• Establishing the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array and associated international collaborations with the objective of detecting the effects of gravitational radiation on the Earth and establishing a long-term standard of time based on pulsar observations.
• Discovering new pulsars, through surveys such as the Parkes 20cm multibeam surveys and the more recent 6.7 GHz multibeam survey.
• Timing young pulsars in support of the GLAST mission to discover many new pulsars in the gamma-ray band.
• Studying the Galactic distribution and evolution of pulsars and, in particular, using binary pulsars to test gravitational theories such as Einstein's general theory of relativity
• Understanding what makes radio pulsars work through observations of their single pulses and their polarization properties
• Using pulsars as probes of the interstellar medium, studying, for example, the structure of the Galactic magnetic field
• Maintaining and updating the ATNF Pulsar Catalogue. This catalogue contains information on all published pulsars, with complete bibliographic information and is intended to serve both professional astronomers and the wider community.
• Running the `pulsar lunch' activities which brings together (via teleconference) "pulsar people" at other institutions around Australia (and sometimes overseas). If you would like to be on the email list announcing these meetings, please advise Dick Manchester.

We encourage students to join the group and we have a number of interesting PhD projects on offer. Please contact one of the group members for information.

G.H. (May 2003)