Understanding the evolution of radio pulsars

  • Which processes determine the pulsar braking index, and on what timescales?
  • How do short (<10 yr) measurements of the braking index relate to long term pulsar evolution?
  • What is the simplest interpretation of the P-Pdot diagram in the context of "noisy" pulsar braking indices?
  • How does state-changing, glitching, and intermittency relate to the long term evolution of P and Pdot?
  • How do the pulsar radio emission properties and geometry evolve with time?
PPdot