MG11 
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Abstract

Precision tests of General Relativity with the double pulsar

Our discovery of the first ever double pulsar system has lived up to its promise to provide a truly unique laboratory for relativistic gravitational physics. The results reviewed in this talk represent the most stringent tests of general relativity in the strong-field regime ever performed. In the near and far future, the system will provide further excitements such as measurements of a relativistic deformation of the orbit, aberration effects and also effects that require treatment at a level of second Post-Newtonian order, including the first measurement of the moment-of-inertia of a neutron star using relativistic spin-orbit coupling. Looking beyond the double pulsars, t the end of the decade, we expect strong-field tests to be performed using pulsar orbiting black holes which will be discovered with the Square-Kilometre-Array.

Radio emitting neutron stars: new additions to the zoo

Progress in instrumentation, new surveys, and some luck, have helped us to obtain new insight into the diversity of the Galactic neutron star population. Recent discoveries have revealed radio pulsars with magnetar-like spin properties, an increased number of slowly rotating pulsars, and new classes of sources such as RRATS (Rotating Radio Transients) and quasi-active radio pulsars. In particular the ellusive RRATS may represent a major fraction of the galactic neutron star population, as they are only visible when they emit brief flashes of radio light every few hours. While RRATS may provide a missing link to the magnetar/axp population, quasi-active radio pulsars provide profound insight in the working of the neutron star radio emission process. This talk will summarize and review the various aspects of these new additions to the neutron star zoo.

Radio emitting neutron stars: new additions to the zoo