2 Pulsar Phenomenology
Many of the basic observational facts about radio pulsars were established shortly after their
discovery [119
] in 1967. Although there are still many open questions, the basic model has
long been established beyond all reasonable doubt, i.e. pulsars are rapidly rotating, highly
magnetised neutron stars formed during the supernova explosions of massive (
)
stars. In the following, we discuss the observational properties that are most relevant to this
review.