| In this thesis, I consider the effects of rapid rotation on many types of radiation emitted by pulsars. I explore perturbations to the standard, non-rotating pulsar models (including, eg., Doppler boosting of the radiation from the surface). I also study thermal radiation from pulsars that interacts with the magnetosphere through the process of resonant cyclotron scattering, and examine the effects that gravitational bending has on outer gap emission. I find that for PNS ≈ 3 ms spin periods, the pulse fractions from thermal surface emission emitted from the neutron star polar caps can be as much as an order of magnitude greater than with simple, slowly rotating (Schwarzschild) estimates. Doppler boosting, in particular, leads to characteristic distortion and soft energy lags in the pulse profiles. Using detailed model atmosphere grids, I find that Doppler boosting can smear out spectral features, turning a rich absorption spectrum into a near blackbody continuum.; I use the above models to examine data from a particularly interesting isolated neutron star. RX J1856-3754 is the nearest, brightest isolated neutron star. Its spectrum appears to be unpolluted by non-thermal emission, offering a unique opportunity to study both the composition of the neutron star surface and its interior equation of state. I was able to place strong constraints on allowed equation of state models, completely excluding the 'quark star' equation of state that was recently highly publicized. |
