Editor's Summary

16 February 2006

Pulsars: transient population

A previously unknown population of superdense neutron stars has been identified. Termed RRATs, for rotating radio transients, their radio emissions vary on very short timescales, with bursts of 2 to 30 milliseconds occurring at intervals of 4 minutes to 3 hours. Eleven such objects have been found so far but their ephemeral nature suggests that there are many more in our Galaxy that remain unseen. This discovery implies a several-fold increase in the estimated radio-pulsar population, currently about 100,000.

Letter: Transient radio bursts from rotating neutron stars

M. A. McLaughlin, A. G. Lyne, D. R. Lorimer, M. Kramer, A. J. Faulkner, R. N. Manchester, J. M. Cordes, F. Camilo, A. Possenti, I. H. Stairs, G. Hobbs, N. D'Amico, M. Burgay and J. T. O'Brien

doi:10.1038/nature04440

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