Chunglee Kim (Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Northwestern University)

Statistics of millisecond pulsars revisited - Chunglee Kim Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Millisecond pulsars (MSPs) are closely related to compact-object binaries,
which makes them
interesting in the context of astrophysics, as well as gravitational wave
detection. Due to the
success of several recent large-scale pulsar surveys, including the Parkes
multibeam pulsar survey,
the number of known MSPs has considerably increased. In this talk, I will
briefly review the main
properties of MSPs and present some recent results on this population based
on the most up-to-date
observed sample. Following up on Lorimer et al. (1993) and Cordes & Chernoff
(1997), I perform
statistical analyses of the observed sample of MSPs and constrain their
underlying physical
properties, such as birthrate estimates, luminosity function, etc. The
implications of updated MSP
statistics for the double-neutron-star merger rate estimates and prospects
for the detection of
gravitational waves will also be discussed.