Binary and Millisecond Pulsars

Abstract

Our knowledge of binary and millisecond pulsars has greatly increased in recent years. This is largely due to the success of large-area surveys which have brought the known population of such systems in the Galactic disk to around 50. As well as being interesting as a population of astronomical sources, many pulsars turn out to be superb celestial clocks. In this review we summarise the main properties of binary and millisecond pulsars and highlight some of their applications to relativistic astrophysics.