The progenitors of pulsars

Abstract

The present discussion of single and binary pulsars emphasizes those examples of the latter which have low-mass companions. It is determined that millisec pulsars must have a scale height comparable to that of low-mass X-ray binaries, from which they probably evolve, and it is predicted that there should be of the order of about 100 potentially observable millisec pulsars within about 4 kpc, provided that the lifetime of these pulsars is greater than about 1 billion years. The majority of ultrafast pulsars will be in binaries, and will have periods of 6-10 millisec.