The Glitch Activity of Rotation-Powered Pulsars

A statistical study of the glitch population and the behavior of the glitch activity across the known population of neutron stars is presented. A constant ratio between the glitch activity and the spin-down rate νg/|ν| = 0.010 ± 0.001 is consistent with the behavior of all rotation-powered pulsars and magnetars. This relation is dominated by large glitches (Δν ≳ 10 μHz), which occur at a rate directly proportional to |ν|. The only exception are the rotation-powered pulsars with the highest values of |ν|, such as the Crab pulsar and PSR B0540-69, which exhibit a much smaller glitch activity, intrinsically different from each other and from the rest of the population. This contribution is based on the work done by Fuentes et al. (2017) "The glitch activity of neutron stars", accepted for publication in A&A. © International Astronomical Union 2018.