Transient Radio Neutron Stars

TL;DR

This paper reviews high-resolution radio observations of neutron stars, focusing on transient sources called RRATs, discussing their nature, recent discoveries, and their place in neutron star evolution.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive review of RRATs, including recent survey re-analyses and insights into their potential origins and evolutionary status.

Findings

RRATs are likely extreme nullers or highly variable pulsars.

Recent surveys have identified new RRAT sources.

RRATs may represent a phase in neutron star evolution.

Abstract

Here I will review the high time resolution radio sky, focusing on millisecond scales. This is primarily occupied by neutron stars, the well-known radio pulsars and the recently identified group of transient sources known as Rotating RAdio Transients (RRATs). The RRATs appear to be abundant in the Galaxy, which at first glance may be difficult to reconcile with the observed supernova rate. However, as I will discuss, it seems that the RRATs can be explained as pulsars which are either extreme nullers, highly variable or weak/distant. I will re-cap some recent results including a re-analysis of the Parkes Multi-beam Pulsar Survey, which has identified several new sources, as well as the unusual timing behaviour of RRAT J1819-1458. This leads to an examination of where RRATs fit within the evolution of neutron stars post-supernova.