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On Pulsar Distance Measurements And Their Uncertainties, J. P. W. Verbiest, J. M. Weisberg, A. A. Chael, K. J. Lee, D. R. Lorimer

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Accurate distances to pulsars can be used for a variety of studies of the Galaxy and its electron content. However, most distance measures to pulsars have been derived from the absorption (or lack thereof) of pulsar emission by Galactic H I gas, which typically implies that only upper or lower limits on the pulsar distance are available. We present a critical analysis of all measured H I distance limits to pulsars and other neutron stars, and translate these limits into actual distance estimates through a likelihood analysis that simultaneously corrects for statistical biases. We also apply this analysis to parallax …