Pulsar star. The neutron star retains most of its angular momentum, and since it has only a tiny fraction of its progenitor's radius (and therefore its moment of inertia is sharply reduced), it is formed with very high rotation speed. A beam of radiation is emitted along the magnetic axis of the pulsar, which spins along with the rotation of the neutron star. The magnetic axis of the pulsar determines the direction of the electromagnetic beam, with the magnetic axis not necessarily being the same as its rotational axis. This misalignment causes the beam to be seen once for every rotation
Laser beam profiler beam intensity in one direction. By measuring the intensity curve in several directions, the original beam profile can be reconstructed using algorithms developed for x-ray tomography. The measuring instrument is based on high precision multiple knife edges each deployed on a rotating drum and having a different angle with respect to beam orientation. Scanned beam is then reconstructed using tomographic algorithms and provides 2D or 3D high resolution energy distribution plots. Because of the special scanning technique the system automatically zooms in onto the current beam size enabling high resolution measurements of sub micron beams as well as relative large