Understanding radio pulsar emission through single pulse studies

Abstract

The discovery of pulsars revolutionised our understanding of physics under extreme physical environments. Over the past five decades since their discovery in 1967, these exotic objects have proven to be extremely useful for an astonishing range of physics and astrophysics. They were discovered through the detection of their highly collimated beams of radiation as it intercepts our line of sight while the pulsar rotates around its spin axis. However, even after decades of extensive research, the emission mechanism that produces the emission of electromagnetic radiation from these fascinating objects remains one of the outstanding problems in astrophysics. While pulsar emission can be studied via a number of phenomena, studies of individual pulses have been proven fruitful. They provide direct information about the emission process inside the dynamic pulsar magnetosphere and are, therefore, essential for understanding the physical mechanisms governing pulsar radiation. Pulsars exhibit a plethora of emission phenomena, such as subpulse drifting, giant pulses, nulling, mode switching, and microstructure, to name a few. Notwithstanding the substantial progress made over the past years – both on observational and theoretical fronts – we still lack a satisfactory theoretical understanding of many of these distinctive emission phenomena.