Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2006-01-04
Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc 374:1103-1107,2007
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
Expanded version to include more general discussion of part-time pulsars. Accepted to MNRAS
Scientific paper
10.1111/j.1365-2966.2006.11226.x
Growing evidence suggests that some radio pulsars only act sporadically. These "part-time'' pulsars include long-term nulls, quasi-periodic radio flares in PSR B1931+24, as well as the so-called Rotating RAdio Transients (RRATs). Based on the assumption that these objects are isolated neutron stars similar to conventional radio pulsars, we discuss two possible interpretations to the phenomenon. The first interpretation suggests that these objects are pulsars slightly below the radio emission "death line'', which become active occasionally only when the conditions for pair production and coherent emission are satisfied. The second interpretation invokes a radio emission direction reversal in conventional pulsars, as has been introduced to interpret the peculiar mode changing phenomenon in PSR B1822-09. In this picture, our line of sight misses the main radio emission beam of the pulsar but happens to sweep the emission beam when the radio emission direction is reversed. These part-time pulsars are therefore the other half of "nulling'' pulsars. We suggest that X-ray observations may provide clues to differentiate between these two possibilities.
Dyks Jaroslaw
Gil Janusz
Zhang Bing
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