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Abstract: Pulsars, rapidly-rotating and
highly-magnetised neutron stars, can be utilised as tools in the study
of many aspects of fundamental physical, most notably in the
application of binary pulsars to the study of gravitational theories
such as General Relativity. The discovery of ever-more relativistic
binary systems than those presently known will allow for such tests to
probe even deeper into the nature of gravity. Here, I will present the
latest results from the processing of 44% of the the HTRU-South Low
Latitude pulsar survey (HTRU-S LowLat), the most sensitive blind
survey of the southern Galactic plane taken to date. This includes the
discovery and long-term timing of 40 new radio pulsars identified
through the continued application of a novel "partially-coherent
segmented acceleration search" technique, which was specifically
designed to discover highly-relativistic binary systems. These pulsars
display a range of scientifically-interesting behaviours including
glitching, pulse-nulling and binary motion, and appear to comprise a
population of generally older, lower-luminosity pulsars as compared to
the previously-known population. In addition, I will also present an
in-depth report on PSR J1757-1854, the only relativistic binary pulsar
to have been discovered in HTRU-S LowLat to date. This extreme double
neutron star system (which remains the most accelerated pulsar binary
ever discovered) promises to provide new insights into gravitational
theories within the coming years.
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