The Characteristics of (Normal) Pulsars

Abstract

Pulsars have now been studied for 34 years. We know of the existence of some 1500 objects at radio frequencies. Many of the characteristics of pulsars such as pulsar period, period derivative, spectrum, polarization, etc., have been catalogued for many objects. Still we do not know the details of the pulsar emission mechanism. The present review will give an up-to-date description of the characteristics of (normal, slow) radio pulsars. Millisecond pulsars will be dealt with by M. Kramer (this volume).