SIMBAD references

The stellar encounter rate Γ has been shown to be strongly correlated with the number of X-ray binaries in globular clusters (GCs) and also to the number of radio pulsars. However, the pulsar populations in different GCs show remarkably different characteristics: in some GCs the population is dominated by binary systems, in others by single pulsars and exotic systems that result from exchange encounters. In this paper, we describe a second dynamical parameter for GCs, the encounter rate for a single binary, γ. We find that this parameter provides a good characterization of the differences between the pulsar populations of different GCs. The higher γ is for any particular GC, the more isolated pulsars and products of exchange interactions are observed. Furthermore, we also find that slow and ``young'' pulsars are found almost exclusively in clusters with a high γ; this suggests that these kinds of objects are formed by the disruption of X-ray binaries, thus halting the recycling of a previously dead neutron star. We discuss the implications of this for the nature of young pulsars and for the formation of neutron stars in GCs.