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Handbook of Pulsar Astronomy

Handbook of Pulsar Astronomy

A reviewed, chapter-shaped reading guide based on Lorimer and Kramer's 2005 handbook, adapted for this documentation site.

This section is based on the extracted contents of Handbook of Pulsar Astronomy by D. R. Lorimer and M. Kramer.

It is not a page-by-page reproduction. Instead, it has been reviewed and reshaped into chapter guides that are easier to read inside a documentation site.

What was kept:

  • the original chapter structure of the book
  • the strongest conceptual through-lines: emission, timing, surveys, instrumentation, and the interstellar medium
  • formulas and ideas that still anchor modern pulsar work

What was changed:

  • OCR noise, broken headings, and raw front-matter clutter were removed
  • chapter summaries were rewritten for readability
  • obviously dated survey counts, telescope forecasts, and "current" status claims were treated as historical context rather than present-day fact

Review note: this book was published in 2005. It remains excellent for concepts and observational method, but not for the latest census numbers, hardware status, or mission timelines.

Suggested order

  1. The Pulsar Phenomenon
  2. Pulsars as Physical Tools
  3. Theoretical Background
  4. Interstellar Medium Effects
  5. Instrumentation for Pulsar Observations
  6. Finding New Pulsars
  7. Observing Known Pulsars
  8. Pulsar Timing
  9. Beyond Single Radio Dishes
  10. Appendices and Resources

Who this section is for

  • readers who want a fuller English-language path beyond the short Pulsar Basics pages
  • PSRUI users who want to connect GUI terms back to the larger observational literature
  • graduate-level readers who prefer a structured handbook over a scattered paper trail

Choose your next stop

  • Start with Pulsar Basics if you still need the shortest explanation of archive data, DM, TOA extraction, RFI, and calibration.
  • Stay here if you want the longer English path through observing systems, search logic, known-source analysis, and timing.
  • Use Pulsar Physics if you also read Chinese and want a second, more chapter-shaped physics companion.

How to use it with the rest of the docs

  • Pulsar Basics stays focused on the minimum concepts behind archive inspection, DM, TOA extraction, RFI, and calibration.
  • This section is broader and more book-like.
  • Toolchain Reference is still the place to map those concepts back onto PSRCHIVE, tempo2, dspsr, and related CLI tools.

Chapter 11. Pulsars and the Interstellar Medium

Use dispersion, Faraday rotation, scintillation, and scattering to turn pulsars from the object of study into probes of the medium between the stars.

The Pulsar Phenomenon

Emission properties, propagation effects, and population-level patterns from Chapter 1 of the handbook, rewritten as a practical overview.

On this page

Suggested orderWho this section is forChoose your next stopHow to use it with the rest of the docs