Do pulsars define a spiral pattern?

Abstract

In this paper, we address the question "Do pulsars define a spiral pattern?". Based on a detailed statistical analysis, we show that there exists a significant correlation between the present distribution of pulsars and the mass distribution (in the spiral arms) expected to exist about 60 Myr ago (Ramachandran & Deshpande 1994). We discuss one of the most important implications of this correlation and estimate the lower critical mass for the formation of the neutron star to be about 7Mo. We compare this estimate of the lower critical mass with an estimate obtained from other methods.