Emission altitudes in radio pulsars with triple profiles

Abstract

We propose here an independent method to understand emission altitudes in radio pulsars showing triple profiles. The centers of core and conal components in triple profiles are often non coincident in longitude. Treating these offsets as a generic property we seek an explanation by attributing different emission altitudes to these components. The offsets are then easily explained as resulting from aberration, retardation and magnetic field line sweep back. This immediately allows determination of the difference between core and conal altitudes which are much less uncertain than the individual altitudes derived by other methods and leading to many interesting conclusions. Individual altitudes can also be determined by focussing on the relation between emission altitudes and polar flux tube filling factors of these components. For this purpose we propose an empirical '1/3 rule' to concisely describe the triple pulse morphologies. We are led to generally higher emission altitudes and an interesting variation of filling factors with them.