PY 228: STELLAR ASTROPHYSICS

Playing With Pulsars: An Optional Homework?!

This exercise involves the use of the program pulsar on a REALM workstation. To execute this program follow these simple steps:

1. Log on to a REALM (Unity, EOS, PAMS...) workstation
2. Type add py228_info
3. Type cp /ncsu/py228_info/ucla/Pulsar ~/Pulsar (This copies the X application defaults file to your root directory.)
4. Run the program by typing pulsar

1. If you start the pulsar rotating from the start of the program, the beam will never pass your line of sight, and you will never see the pulsar (see the light curve on the bottom of the window).
2. Try making an oblique rotator by setting the magnetic field offset angle to 90 degrees. Do you see a signal? What happens if you open up the beam opening angle.
3. Back the the magnetic field offset angle off of 90 degrees. Try to get a pulse/interpulse that are different from each other.
4. Try various orientations, etc. If the beam opening angle is only 10 degrees, do you think your chances of actually seeing such a pulsar are good or bad?