The PALFA survey, the most sensitive blind search for radio pulsars, has now discovered 180 pulsars in the Galactic Plane, the vast of which have periods shorter than 2 seconds. One reason that pulsar surveys may miss long-period radio pulsars is the strong effect of red noise at low modulation frequencies. It is possible to address this reduction in sensitivity by using a Fast-Folding Algorithm (FFA). We have adapted this algorithm for radio pulsar searching and applied it to PALFA observations. A sensitivity analysis of the algorithm has been conducted using synthetic pulsar signals injected in real observational data and this study shows that the FFA improves the PALFA survey sensitivity, as reported in Lazarus et al.(2015), by at least a factor of two at periods of ~6 sec, implying that the PALFA survey should discover more long-period radio pulsars in the future.

The future of centimetre and metre-wave astronomy lies with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a telescope under development by a consortium of 17 countries that will be 50 times more sensitive than any existing radio facility. Most of the key science for the SKA will be addressed through large-area imaging of the Universe at frequencies from a few hundred MHz to a few GHz. The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a technology demonstrator aimed in the mid-frequency range, and achieves instantaneous wide-area imaging through the development and deployment of phased-array feed systems on parabolic reflectors. The large field-of-view makes ASKAP an unprecedented synoptic telescope that will make substantial advances in SKA key science. ASKAP will be located at the Murchison Radio Observatory in inland Western Australia, one of the most radio-quiet locations on the Earth and one of two sites selected by the international community as a potential location for the SKA. In this paper, we outline an ambitious science program for ASKAP, examining key science such as understanding the evolution, formation and population of galaxies including our own, understanding the magnetic Universe, revealing the transient radio sky and searching for gravitational waves.

NASA's NuSTAR observatory is the first focusing hard X-ray telescope. Launched in June 2012, NuSTAR is sensitive in the 3–79 keV range with unprecedented ~17″ FWHM angular resolution above 12 keV, a result of its multilayer-coated optics and 10-m focal length. With its large effective area (900 cm2 at 10 keV), NuSTAR has point-source sensitivity ~100 times better than previous hard X-ray telescopes. Here we describe NuSTAR and its planned work on rotation-powered pulsars and magnetars during its nominal 2-yr baseline mission that has just commenced.

On 2011 July 14, a transient X-ray source, Swift J1822.3–1606, was detected by Swift BAT via its burst activities. It was subsequently identified as a new magnetar upon the detection of a pulse period of 8.4 s. Using follow-up RXTE, Swift, and Chandra observations, we have determined a spin-down rate of Ṗ ~ 3 × 10−13, implying a dipole magnetic field of ~ 5 × 1013 G, second lowest among known magnetars, although our timing solution is contaminated by timing noise. The post-outburst flux evolution is well modelled by surface cooling resulting from heat injection in the outer crust, although we cannot rule out other models. We measure an absorption column density similar to that of the open cluster M17 at 10′ away, arguing for a comparable distance of ~1.6 kpc. If confirmed, this could be the nearest known magnetar.

PSRs J1847–0130 and J1718–37184 have inferred surface dipole magnetic fields greater than those of any other known pulsars and well above the “quantum critical field” above which some models predict radio emission should not occur. These fields are similar to those of the anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), which growing evidence suggests are “magnetars”. The lack of AXP-like X-ray emission from these radio pulsars (and the non-detection of radio emission from the AXPs) creates new challenges for understanding pulsar emission physics and the relationship between these classes of apparently young neutron stars.

We are conducting deep searches for radio pulsations at L-band (∼ 20 cm) towards more than 30 globular clusters (GCs) using the 305 m Arecibo telescope in Puerto Rico and the 100 m Green Bank Telescope in West VirginiA. With roughly three quarters of our search data analyzed, we have discovered 12 new millisecond pulsars (MSPs), 11 of which are in binary systems, and at least three of which eclipse. We have timing solutions for several of these systems.

We present X-ray observations of PSR J1814–1744, a 4 s radio pulsar with inferred surface dipole magnetic field strength 5.5 × 1013 G recently discovered in the on-going Parkes multibeam survey. This pulsar’s spin parameters are very similar to those of anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs). X-ray emission is not detected from the position of the radio pulsar in observations with ROSAT and ASCA. The derived upper flux limit implies an X-ray luminosity significantly smaller than those of all known AXPs. These results argue that magnetar mechanism invoked to explain X-ray emission from AXPs must depend on more than merely the inferred surface magnetic field strength as estimated from P and .

Measurement of accurate positions, pulse periods and period derivatives is an essential follow-up to any pulsar survey. The procedures being used to obtain timing parameters for the pulsars discovered in the Parkes multibeam pulsar survey are described. Completed solutions have been obtained so far for about 80 pulsars. They show that the survey is preferentially finding pulsars with higher than average surface dipole magnetic fields. Eight pulsars have been shown to be members of binary systems and some of the more interesting results relating to these are presented.

Parkes timing observations of 31 mostly young pulsars over nearly nine years are described. A total of 29 glitches were detected, of which 19 are previously unreported. Twelve glitches were seen in PSR J1341–6220, making this the most frequently glitching pulsar known, and the largest known glitch was detected in PSR J1614–5047. Distributions of glitch parameters were investigated.

We have examined several archival ASCA observations of Galactic radio pulsars, including PSRs B1046–58 and B1610–50. X-ray emission is detected from PSR B1046–58 with a significance of ∼5σ. We find no evidence for pulsations. We argue that the emission is from a spatially unresolved synchrotron nebula powered by the pulsar. The location of the X-ray counterpart within the 95% position error ellipse of the gamma-ray source 3EG J1048–5840 strengthens the claim of Kaspi et al. (2000) that PSR B1046–58 emit ϒ-rays. X-ray emission from PSR B1610–50 is not detected. We use the X-ray luminosity upper limit to constrain the pulsar’s velocity ≲ 200km s−1, arguing against an association with the nearby supernova remnant Kes 32. Our results for these radio pulsars contradict previous reports of detections of large (tens of arc minutes) associated synchrotron nebulae.

The Parkes multibeam pulsar survey uses a 13-element receiver operating at a wavelength of 20 cm to survey the inner Galactic plane with remarkable sensitivity. To date we have collected and analyzed data from 45% of the survey region (|b| < 5°; 260° < l < 50°), and have discovered 440 pulsars, in addition to re-detecting 190 previously known ones. Most of the newly discovered pulsars are at great distances, as inferred from a median dispersion measure (DM) of 400 cm−3 pc.

We have monitored the 610 MHz flux density of 21 pulsars on a daily basis for five years. The flux density time series for these pulsars range from nearly constant for the most distant and heavily scattered pulsars to rapidly varying, saturated time series for more nearby pulsars. The measured stability of the flux density from the most distant pulsars (variations less than 5%) implies that the average radio emission from pulsars, before it has been affected by propagation through the ISM, is constant in strength over five years. The flux variations for 12 of the pulsars are consistent with a Kolmogorov turbulence spectrum over a range of more than three orders of magnitude in scattering strength, with no detectable presence of an inner scale (si ≥ 107cm). The flux variations are greater than predicted by this model for five pulsars – including the Crab and Vela – but this group is consistent with a Kolmogorov spectrum and an inner scale of ∼ 1010cm.

We describe radio timing observations of the binary pulsar PSR J0045-7319 made over the past 3.3 yr. We show that a simple timing model involving a standard Keplerian orbit describes the data well; however, significant low-level systematic residuals never before seen in other binary pulsars remain. We consider various possible origins of the residuals.

Although individual radio pulses from pulsars vary in amplitude from pulse to pulse, their height distribution in general does not extend to amplitudes more than 10 times the mean. Two notable exceptions are the Crab pulsar and PSR B1937+21 (Lundgren 1995, Cognard et al. 1996 and references therein) which occasionally emit single radio pulses that have amplitudes more than 100 times the mean. Here we report on the detection of short time-scale, extremely large amplitude radio pulses from the nearby millisecond pulsar PSR J0437–4715. The events we have observed are distinguished by having peak flux densities in excess of 10 times the average pulse amplitude, and occur only within a very narrow (80 µs) window centered on the main pulse.

We present the technique of long-term, high-precision timing of millisecond pulsars as applied to precision astrometry. We provide a tutorial on pulsars and pulsar timing, as well as up-to-date results of long-term timing observations of two millisecond pulsars, PSRs B1855+09 and B1937+21. We consider the feasibility of tying the extragalactic and optical reference frames to that defined by solar system objects, and we conclude that precision astrometry from millisecond pulsar timing has a bright future.

We have made pulsar microstructure observations of PSR 1133+16 at the Arecibo Observatory. Cross-correlation of linearly polarized microstructure between 111 MHz and 318 MHz results in a value of the dispersion measure of DM = 4.8462 ± 0.0004 pc cm–3 at epoch 1989.9. This value is consistent with the average profile determination of Phillips and Wolszczan (1990) obtained at epoch 1989.2, but not with the microstructure value found by Popov et al. (1987) in early 1980. Time variation of the integrated electron content over this ten-year span is a plausible explanation for the discrepancy.