Patrick Weltevrede (Australia Telescope National Facility)

The modulation and propagation of the radio emission of pulsars - Patrick Weltevrede Colloquium

ATNF Marsfield Lecture Theatre

Abstract

Successive radio pulses of pulsars are known to vary in shape and
intensity and only after averaging hundreds or even thousands of
pulses one obtains a stable pulse profile. The variations in pulse
shape (which is called subpulse modulation) can sometimes be chaotic,
but occasionally also very regular. In this talk I will summarize the
results of a study of the subpulse modulation of a large sample of
about two hundred pulsars at an observing wavelength of both 21 and 92
cm using the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope. It appears that the
youngest pulsars have the most disordered subpulses and the subpulses
become more and more organized into so-called drifting subpulses as
the pulsar ages.