Pulsars and the Warp of the Galaxy

Abstract

This paper studies the asymmetries of pulsar distributions relative to the Galactic plane in various Galactic longitudes. It is shown that the observed asymmetric distribution may be explained by the warped and flaring (i.e. increase of scale-height at the peripheries of the Galaxy) structure of the Galaxy. At the peripheries of the Galaxy, the amplitude of the warp, derived from these data, may be as high as nearly 1 kpc. The scale-height of the pulsar distribution increases exponentially from nearly 0.5 kpc to nearly 1 kpc while increasing the galactocentric distance from 5 kpc to 15 kpc. The warp and flare parameters derived from the pulsar data are compared with the stellar and gaseous warp and flare parameters of the Galaxy.