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V. M. Kaspi (MIT)
In 1934, Baade and Zwicky first proposed that neutron stars are formed in supernova explosions of massive stars. The discovery of radio pulsars, particularly the Crab and Vela pulsars, over 30 years later, provided stunning confirmation of that prophetic prediction. Today, with the 1000th radio pulsar just discovered, the time is ripe for a review of the properties of the young pulsar population and of pulsar/supernova remnant associations. In this talk, we present such a review. Among emphasized points will be major open issues, such as the distribution of neutron star rotation periods and magnetic fields, the distribution of neutron star birth velocities, presumably due to asymmetric supernova explosions, as well as the utility of a multiwavelength observational approach. Indeed, we will discuss the growing evidence, particularly from a recent X-ray observations, that radio pulsars represent but a fraction of young neutron star phase space.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: vicky@space.mit.edu