Observing pulsars with the Sardinia Radio Telescope

After nearly 40 years since the original discovery the pulsars - rapidly rotating highly magnetized neutron stars - keep on having many exciting scientific applications, in fields ranging from ultra-dense matter physics to relativistic gravity, cosmology and stellar evolution. A striking example has been the confirmation of the existence of gravitational radiation, as predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. For 10 years, the Italian Pulsar group has been carrying out a series of successful pulsar experiments using the Parkes 64-m dish in Australia. The most exciting result has been the discovery of the J0737-3039 system, i.e. the most relativistic binary pulsar ever and the first system in which both the neutron stars emit detectable radio pulsations. In this scientific scenario, the Sardinia Radio Telescope may be exploited with two initial aims: (i) using known millisecond pulsars as laboratories for understanding gravity and gravitational waves; (ii) searching for further millisecond pulsars in the Galaxy and in the globular cluster systems.