The main goal of the present research project is a detailed investigation of different types of intermittent radio pulsars, in order to define mechanisms producing the observed transient pulsing phenomena. We suggest that these extraordinary sources are “normal” radio pulsars and the reason for the emission intermittency is not the peculiar emission generation mechanism, but rather the specific plasma processes that influence the regular character of radiation detectability.

Execution of the intended research will, first of all, provide us with the new theoretical model that is expected to naturally explain the puzzling properties of radio emission intermittency from pulsars. This issue is presently subject of active observational and theoretical investigations and the real mechanism providing an explanation of observations is still unclear. If proven, as we expect that these extraordinary sources are “normal” radio pulsars from which the radio emission reveals sporadic behaviour only because of plasma processes changing the emission beam direction, this would lead to first steps in deriving single unified emission model for radio pulsars. That is one of the most important problems for many years in pulsar physics. Different objects and their observational data will be reanalysed during research that might also lead to discoveries of interesting pulsar features that were not yet noticed.

Principal investigator: George Machabeli