DR. YOGESH MAAN

Despite the fact that currently more than 2700 pulsars are known, searching for new pulsars has several crucial motivations, e.g., a better understanding of the neutron star population, to aid gravitational wave detection by increasing the pulsar timing array sensitivity, better understanding of stellar synthesis via discovery of pulsars in new binary systems, and understanding the pulsar emission mechanism itself. Along with the above broad motivations, targeted pulsar surveys are conducted to answer some additional, more focused questions. I will discuss three such recent searches for radio pulsars towards : (1) steep spectrum radio sources, (2) subdwarf B-type (sdB) binary star systems, and (3) radio-quiet gamma-ray pulsars. In the second part of the talk, I will briefly present the results of targeted searches towards repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) using the upgraded back-ends at the Westerbork synthesis radio telescope (WSRT). The detailed motivations for each of these surveys, resultant discoveries and current updates will be presented.