Slide 15 of 59
Notes:
Generally, one studies the pulse profile integrated over a sequence of a few hundred pulses and this is very uniform. But individual component pulses or sub-pulses can be very different from one another, varying in intensity, shape and in the phase at which they occur within the integrated profile.
The figure shows a sequence of pulses in time compared to the average envelope for a few hundred pulses.
The most important characteristic of sub-pulses is their high degree of polarization. This also changes throughout the pulse envelope in its form and degree of polarization.