The Origin of High Velocity Pulsars

Theories of the origin of high velocity pulsars are critically reviewed. The author argues that if observations confirm the alignment between the velocity vectors and the spin axis, mostly, only neutron stars which originate from single stars can be detected as runaway radio pulsars. Those only form some 1/4 of all neutron stars. On the other hand, if the velocity vectors are proven to be perpendicular to the spin axis, high velocity pulsars may have originated from both, single stars and binary systems, or only from binary systems, depending on the nature of the explosion.