RXTE observations of single pulses of PSR B0531+21

II. Test for radio behavior

National Center for Radio Astrophysics, TIFR, Pune University Campus, PO Box 3, Ganeshkhind, Pune 411007, India

Received: 3 May 2001
Accepted: 6 July 2001

Abstract

This article is the second in a series that analyzes about 1.87 million periods of the Crab pulsar, observed by the PCA detector aboard the RXTE X-ray observatory. At these energies, the pulsar displays none of the three phenomena that are often seen in normal radio pulsars -"pulse nulling" , "systematic sub-pulse drifting" and "mode changing" . The presence or absence of these three behaviors in the Crab pulsar at radio wavelengths, something that has not yet been rigorously established, might be important for a satisfactory understanding of the above three phenomena.