METERWAVELENGTH SINGLE-PULSE POLARIMETRIC EMISSION SURVEY

Abstract

ABSTRACT We have conducted the Meterwavelength Single-pulse Polarimetric Emission Survey to study the radio emission properties of normal pulsars. A total of 123 pulsars with periods between 0.1 and 8.5 s were observed in the survey at two different frequencies: 105 profiles at 333 MHz, 118 profiles at 618 MHz, and 100 pulsars at both. In this work we concentrate primarily on the time-averaged properties of the pulsar emission. The measured widths of the pulsar profiles in our sample usually exhibit the radius-to-frequency mapping. We validate the existence of lower bounds for the distribution of profile widths with pulsar period (P), which is seen for multiple definitions of the width, namely, a lower boundary line (LBL) at 2.°7P −0.5 with width measured at 50% level of profile peak, an LBL at 5.°7 P −0.5 for 10% level of peak, and an LBL at 6.°3P −0.5 for width defined as 5σ above the baseline level. In addition, we have measured the degree of linear polarization in the average profile of pulsars and confirmed their dependence on pulsar spin-down energy loss ( E ˙ ). The single-pulse polarization data show interesting trends, with the polarization position angle (PPA) distribution exhibiting the simple rotating vector model for high- E ˙ pulsars, while the PPA becomes more complex for medium- and low- E ˙ pulsars. The single-pulse total intensity data are useful for studying a number of emission properties from pulsars like subpulse drifting, nulling, and mode changing, which are being explored in separate works.