Velocities of pulsars: A new approach

The dispersion measure distribution in Galactic longitude for remote pulsars clearly traces the spiral structure of the Galaxy for l between 300 degrees and 10 degrees. The dependence of smearing of the spiral pattern on the characteristic lifetime of the pulsars is analyzed, and the pulsar velocities estimated. The mean spatial velocities of the pulsars indicated by these data do not exceed 250 km/s. The deviation of the positions of neutron stars (that are not radio pulsars) from the centers of the supernova remnants with which they are associated suggests that their mean velocities are less than 250 km/s. This value is high enough to indicate that supernova explosions are asymmetric, provided the birthrate of pulsars is close to the supernova rate. The statistics of high-mass X-ray binaries also testify to the asymmetry of supernova explosions.