Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Modeling Pulsar Trajectories Through A Galatic Potential To Determine Birth Locations, Brent Shapiro-Albert

Honors Theses

Neutron stars are the remnants of massive stars after their deaths in supernova explosions. Some neutron stars, called pulsars, are detected as periodic emitters of radio waves at very precise intervals. Pulsars typically have higher velocities than their progenitor stellar population due to either kicks from supernova asymmetries or from remnant velocities of compact binaries after they are disrupted by explosions. Their velocities are large enough that pulsars will typically move large distances from their birth sites. By determining a pulsar's present day location and velocity, we project back to twice the pulsar's characteristic age to constrain the location of …