Pulsar radio emission shows remarkably rich, but complex behavior in both intensity and polarization when considered on a pulse-to-pulse basis. A large number of pulses, when averaged together, tend to approach & define stable shapes that can be considered as distinct signatures of different pulsars. Such average profiles have shapes ranging from that describable as a simple one-component profile to those suggesting as many as 9 components. The components are understood as resulting from an average of many, often narrower, intities — the subpulses —that appear within the longitude range of a given component. The pulse components are thusformedand represent statistically an intensity-weighted average pattern of the radiation received as a function of longitude. The profile mode changes recognized in many pulsars suggest that the emission profile of a given pulsar may have two quasi-stable states, with one (primary) state more probable/brighter than the other (secondary) state. There are also (often associated) polarization modes that represent polarization states that are orthogonal to each other. The complex nature of orthogonaljumpsobserved in polarization position-angle sweeps may be attributable to possible superposition of two profile/polarization modes with orthogonal polarizations.
On the Excess Dispersion in the Polarization Position Angle of Pulsar Radio Emission
