Arecibo timing observations of 17 pulsars along the Galactic plane

Abstract

We present phase-coherent timing solutions obtained for the first time for 17 pulsars discovered at Arecibo by Hulse & Taylor (1975ab) in a 430-MHz survey of the Galactic plane. This survey remains the most sensitive of the Galactic plane at 430 MHz and has comparable equivalent sensitivity to the 1400-MHz Parkes multibeam survey. Comparing both surveys we find that, as expected, the one at 430 MHz is limited in depth by interstellar dispersion and scattering effects; and that the detection rate of pulsars with high spin-down luminosity ($\dot E>10^{34}$ erg s$^{-1}$) at the low frequency is a factor of 5 smaller than at high frequency. We also present scatter-broadening measurements for two pulsars and pulse nulling and mode-changing properties for two others.