Jw. Hartman et al., A STUDY OF THE EVOLUTION OF RADIO PULSARS THROUGH IMPROVED POPULATIONSYNTHESIS, Astronomy and astrophysics, 322(2), 1997, pp. 477-488
We simulate the birth and evolution of radio pulsars throughout the Ga
laxy and their observation in a region around the Sun, using recently
derived models for the velocity distribution of neutron stars and for
the galactic distribution of free electrons. We confirm our previous r
esult that the properties of the pulsar population are best described
by models in which the magnetic field does not decay significantly dur
ing the pulsar lifetime. The small number of young pulsars at large di
stance to the Galactic Plane suggests that many pulsars are born with
small velocities. We derive a birth rate of radio pulsars near the Sun
of 2.3 kpc(-2) Myr(-1), and argue that this rate can be sustained by
stars with mass M > 10 Msun, in OB-associations.