P1032 - Timing southern binary pulsar systems

Brief description Even after 50 years since the discovery of neutron stars as radio pulsars, their internal composition has remained elusive. Several models have been proposed for the internal structure of neutron stars, each defining a maximum mass that neutron stars can possess. Searching for and finding very heavy neutron stars have the ability to rule out models that do not predict such heavy objects should exist. In this proposal, we aim to measure the masses of a number of neutron stars in binary star systems to constrain their internal composition.