Observations of Rapid Fluctuations of Intensity and Phase in Pulsar Emissions

Abstract

We present an analysis of the pulse-to-pulse fluctuations of intensity and phase of twenty pulsars. Observations were made with a new type of receiver which removes most of the effects of dispersion from the pulsar signals, and enhances sensitivity by approximately a factor of 7 over that obtainable with conventional receivers. The results suggest that the pulsars studied can be divided into three classes, according to their pulse shapes and the nature of their rapid fluctuations of intensity.