Polarization characteristics of southern pulsars - II. 640-MHz observations

Abstract

Observations of integrated pulse profiles and polarization characteristics at frequencies near 640 MHz are presented for 43 pulsars. Significant polarization is observed for most objects; the mean linear polarization for the whole sample is 20 percent and the mean circular polarization is 13 percent. For many pulsars the position angle varies at an approximately uniform rate across the profile, the total change being no more than about 180 deg. In several cases, however, discontinuities in position angle are observed, and most of these discontinuous changes are of the order of 90 deg. Circular polarization is generally of one sign across the integrated profile, but in two pulsars sign changes are observed near the center of the profile.