Maurizio Toscano

A Study of Southern Millisecond Pulsars Maurizio Toscano

The recent completion of large-scale searches for Millisecond Pulsars (MSPs) in the Southern Hemisphere, along with the flurry of publications in the Astronomical literature that these surveys have produced, have renewed interest in the pioneering work that was conducted at the Parkes Radio telescope a decade ago. At the time, when the population of know MSPs was small, research was undertaken to consolidate and clarify our understanding of the MSP population and to try an overcome many widely held misconceptions about this population. This book captures many aspects of this ground-breaking work, including: a study that overturned the belief that the spectra of MSPs differed greatly from ordinary pulsars; research that provided novel insights in to the velocity distribution of MSPs and the dynamics of the Galaxy; and a novel perspective on the local interstellar medium. This book is a great asset to all pulsar researchers, but particularly to those who wish to trace the legacy of this fascinating branch of Astronomy.