Sixty Years of Pulsar Science—Advances and Future Prospects

Dear Colleagues,

1. Introduction

In 1967, Jocelyn Bell and Andrew Hewish identified regular periodic pulsed radio signals from cosmic compact sources, marking the discovery of the first pulsar and launching an extraordinary era of exploration in neutron star and compact object astronomy. About sixty years have now elapsed since this groundbreaking detection. Over these decades, astronomers worldwide have conducted continuous sky surveys via ground-based and space-borne multi-wavelength observatories, identifying and confirming more than 4,000 pulsars encompassing a diverse zoo of neutron stars with vastly distinct physical properties. Observational coverage spans the full electromagnetic spectrum, including radio, optical, soft/hard X-ray, high and very high-energy gamma-ray bands.

Decades of multi-wavelength observations have yielded extensive high-precision datasets, enabling researchers to construct and iteratively refine a broad suite of physical theoretical models that interpret exotic observational signatures associated with pulsar radiation, evolutionary pathways, and gravitational interactions. Uniquely endowed with extreme physical conditions—ultra-high density, super-strong magnetic fields, extreme spin velocities, and intense gravitational potentials—pulsars serve as natural cosmic laboratories that offer irreplaceable observational platforms to test core fundamental physical theories. Pulsar research covers an extensive scope of disciplines: nuclear physics and the particle properties of dense matter, electromagnetic wave-magnetized plasma coupling, quantum electrodynamics processes, neutrino radiation transport, the origin and propagation of ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, Einstein’s general relativity alongside alternative modified gravity theories, and the detection and characterization of gravitational waves. Observational findings from pulsars constitute a cornerstone of the growing field of multi-messenger astronomy.

Global observational facilities have undergone transformative advancement, with next-generation large scientific infrastructures catalyzing frontier pulsar research. The Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST) achieves unprecedented sensitivity, enabling the systematic discovery of millisecond pulsars and faint peculiar pulsars. The Square Kilometre Array (SKA), upon completion, will conduct all-sky pulsar population surveys. The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) fills critical observational gaps in optical and infrared bands for compact objects. Spaceborne observatories including NICER and FERMI focus on X-ray and gamma-ray pulsar observations. The Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov (MAGIC) and the High Energy Stereoscopic System (H.E.S.S.) telescopes have even detected pulsed TeV emission from a handful of pulsars. The Large High-Altitude Air Shower Observatory (LHAASO) targets high-energy particle emission originating from pulsars, while the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA (LVK) gravitational-wave detectors continuously capture gravitational-wave signals from binary neutron star mergers. Coordinated multi-facility and multi-messenger observations constantly expand the boundaries of our understanding of compact objects and extreme cosmic physics. Meanwhile, these observational breakthroughs raise numerous newly emerging open scientific questions that demand extensive academic exchange and collaborative research across the community.

2. Scope and Objectives of This Special Issue

Commemorating six decades since the discovery of pulsars, this Special Issue is dedicated to comprehensively reviewing landmark advances across neutron star and pulsar research, exploring innovative frontier theories, novel observational technologies, and long-term developmental roadmaps for the field. This thematic collection integrates all subfields of neutron star and pulsar science, systematically categorizing and characterizing the evolutionary patterns and physical properties of the full pulsar zoo to deliver a holistic panorama of compact object astronomy, while establishing a high-level academic exchange platform for researchers in the field.

Despite the landmark progress accumulated over sixty years, numerous core unresolved scientific puzzles remain in compact object astronomy, leaving abundant room for theoretical innovation and observational breakthroughs. This Special Issue welcomes manuscript submissions from astronomers, physicists, observational engineers, and theoretical modelers globally. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following subfields:

(1) Pulsar magnetic field physics: three-dimensional magnetic field geometry, origin of magnetic field, long-term magnetic evolution, magnetic inclination evolution, magnetosphere, non-dipolar magnetic field, and magnetic energy release mechanisms;

(2) Spin dynamics: origin of the pulsar initial spin period and its evolution, spin-down laws, theoretical predictions versus observed deviations of braking indices; pulsar spin-up in the binary accretion phase, and the recycling process of millisecond pulsar;

(3) Radiation mechanisms: multi-wavelength radiative models across radio/optical/X-ray/gamma-ray bands, origins of thermal and non-thermal emission, pulse profile variations, pulse nulling, mode switching, various bursts and oscillations (e.g., QPOs), and other exotic radiative phenomena;

(4) Millisecond pulsar systems: formation and evolution channels of millisecond pulsars (e.g., spider pulsars), double neutron star systems, binary pulsars with various types of companions, as well as their relations to the progenitors; 

(5) Binary compact systems: high/low-mass X-ray binaries, accreting X-ray pulsars, tight-orbit binary neutron stars, pulsar–millisecond pulsar binaries, neutron star–white dwarf binaries, and neutron star–black hole binary dynamics;

(6) Peculiar periodic pulsars: ultra-long-period radio transients, sub-millisecond pulsars, intermittent pulsars, rotating radio transients;  

(7) Distinct classes of compact stars: magnetars, white dwarf pulsars, gamma-ray pulsars, central compact objects (CCOs) within supernova remnants, and isolated neutron stars;

(8) Transient phenomena: fast radio bursts (FRBs), gamma-ray bursts from the merge of compact objects, diverse radio transients, X-ray/gamma-ray bursts from neutron stars, and neutron star transient sources;

(9) Young pulsars and interstellar environments: birth process of pulsars, newborn young pulsars, pulsar wind nebulae, and interactions between pulsars and the interstellar medium, scintillations of radio pulsars;

(10) Supernovae and proto-neutron star evolution: core-collapse supernova explosion mechanisms, proto-neutron star formation, and stellar evolutionary pathways leading to neutron stars across different progenitor mass ranges;

(11) Fundamental physics of neutron star matter: dense nuclear matter equations of state (EOS), minimum and maximum mass limits of neutron stars, and candidate exotic compact stars such as quark stars;

(12) Internal pulsar dynamics: glitches, spin variations, internal superfluidity, crustal structural evolution, and stellar crust quake;

(13) Origin and evolution of all neutron star populations: physical processes from single-star to binary-star evolution, and peculiar pulsar phenomena triggered by compact object mergers;

(14) Multi-messenger observational studies: gravitational-wave detection with pulsars, neutrino emission, high-energy cosmic-ray correlations, and joint multi-wavelength electro-magnetism analysis;

(15) Observational techniques and data processing: pulsar survey methodologies for radio telescopes, and space-borne high-energy detectors, pulsar timing algorithms, big data, and machine learning pipelines for pulsar identification. Forward-looking review articles: scientific objectives of next-generation observatories, priority research directions for pulsar astronomy in the next decade, and interdisciplinary innovative perspectives.

3. Call for Contributions and Prospects for the Community

We warmly invite researchers engaged in pulsar observations, theoretical modeling, numerical simulations, astronomical instrumentation development, and data algorithm design worldwide to submit their work. Acceptable manuscript formats include high-quality original research papers, comprehensive review articles, frontier short communications, instrumental technical reports, and perspective commentaries outlining future scientific visions. 

Marking the 60th anniversary of pulsar discovery, this Special Issue serves as an inclusive and open academic forum that unites global research efforts, summarizes prevailing bottlenecks, and distills core scientific priorities for the coming decades. Through the publication of a series of high-standard research outputs, we strive to drive sustained breakthroughs in pulsar and neutron star astrophysics. Leveraging these extreme compact objects, humanity may unravel profound underlying mysteries governing gravity, nuclear matter, and high-energy particle physics, thereby advancing our fundamental understanding of stellar evolution, galactic evolution, and the universal physical laws shaping the cosmos.

Prof. Dr. Chengmin Zhang
Prof. Dr. David Blaschke
Prof. Dr. Jérôme Pétri
Guest Editors

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• pulsar
• neutron stars
• magnetar
• compact object
• gravitational waves
• fast radio burst
• millisecond pulsar