Long – Term Rotational Stability Of Some Isolated Radio Pulsars

ABSTRACT We re-examined the phenomenon of rotational instability in radio pulsars on decadal timescales using a sample of 315 radio pulsars whose spin-rates [rotation period (P) and spin-down rate ( P) ] have been measured on, at least two different epochs. The first stage of our analysis involves a direct comparison of the measured values of P and P at two epochs that are ~ 10 - 20 years apart in order to estimate the fluctuation in the parameters. The results show that the fluctuation in the objects’ rotational period (DP) is significant in 293 pulsars, while it is at the level of measureme…