Blind surveys for radio pulsars and transients

TL;DR

This review discusses methods, challenges, recent efforts, and future prospects of blind radio pulsar surveys, emphasizing their importance for understanding neutron stars, Galactic structure, and transient phenomena.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of blind search techniques, recent discoveries, and future directions in radio pulsar and transient surveys.

Findings

Recent surveys have discovered numerous new pulsars and transients.

Challenges include data processing and interference mitigation.

Future surveys will expand the pulsar population and transient detection capabilities.

Abstract

The main reasons for searching for pulsars are to: (i) get an accurate census of the neutron star population and its origin and evolution; (ii) connect neutron stars to other stellar populations in the Galaxy and globular clusters; (iii) study Galactic astronomy (the interstellar medium and magnetic field); (iv) find and study new interesting individual objects; (v) study pulsar phenomenology; (vi) find pulsars to add to the sensitivity of pulsar timing arrays. This review focuses on blind (i.e. large area) searches for radio pulsars. I'll summarize the methods we use, some of the challenges they present, look at some of the recent and current efforts going on. I will also look at outreach of this area to groups outside the traditional area of pulsar research, highlight the discoveries of radio transients and look ahead to the future. Pulsars found at other wavelengths will be reviewed elsewhere in this volume.