The statistics of radio pulsars: A spark model

We use Monte Carlo techniques to relate a theoretical pulsar emission model to the observed distributions of pulse period, magnetic field strength, di stance, and luminosity of radio pulsars. We assume that the radio luminosit y of pulsars is proportional to the gap potential and current flow from the polar cap. The current is assumed to be nonuniform and clustered in sparks , but only those sparks swept by the line of sight contribute to the observ ed radio luminosity. We test our model by using the Ruderman-Sutherland vac uum gap potential and find that the simulated distributions are consistent with those observed, with the exception of the period distribution. The mod el predicts more long-period pulsars than are observed. This discrepancy ma y result from the model itself, a reduced sensitivity of surveys to long-pe riod pulsars, or the nondipole spin-down of pulsars.