Absolute polarization position angle profiles of southern pulsars at 1.4 and 3.1 GHz

Abstract

We present here a direct comparison of the polarization position angle (PA) profiles of 17 pulsars, observed at 1.4 and 3.1 GHz. Absolute PAs are obtained at each frequency, permitting a measurement of the difference in the profiles. By doing this, we obtain more precise rotation measure (RM) values for some of the pulsars in the current catalogue. We find that, apart from RM corrections, there are small, pulse-longitude-dependent differences in PA with frequency. Such differences go beyond the interpretation of a geometrical origin. We describe in detail the PA evolution between the two frequencies and discuss possible causes, such as orthogonal and nonorthogonal polarization modes of emission. We also use the PA and total power profiles to estimate the difference in emission height at which the two frequencies originate. In our data sample, there are changes in the relative strengths of different pulse components, especially overlapping linearly polarized components, which coincide with intrinsic changes of the PA profile, resulting in interesting PA differences between the two frequencies. © 2005 RAS.