No pulsar left behind - I. Timing, pulse-sequence polarimetry and emission morphology for 12 pulsars

In this paper, we study a set of 12 pulsars that previously had not been characterized. Our timing shows that eleven of them are `normal' isolated pulsars, with rotation periods between 0.22 and 2.65 s, characteristic ages between 0.25 Myr and 0.63 Gyr, and estimated magnetic fields ranging from 0.05 to 3.8 × 10¹² G. The youngest pulsar in our sample, PSR J0627+0706, is located near the Monoceros supernova remnant (SNR G205.5+0.5), but it is not the pulsar most likely to be associated with it. We also confirmed the existence of a candidate from an early Arecibo survey, PSR J2053+1718, its subsequent timing and polarimetry are also presented here. It is an isolated pulsar with a spin period of 119 ms, a relatively small magnetic field of 5.8 × 10⁹ G and a characteristic age of 6.7 Gyr; this suggests the pulsar was mildly recycled by accretion from a companion star, which became unbound when that companion became a supernova. We report the results of single-pulse and average Arecibo polarimetry at both 327 and 1400 MHz aimed at understanding the basic emission properties and beaming geometry of these pulsars. Three of them (PSRs J0943+2253, J1935+1159 and J2050+1259) have strong nulls and sporadic radio emission, several others exhibit interpulses (PSRs J0627+0706 and J0927+2345) and one shows regular drifting subpulses (J1404+1159).