Emission beam geometry of multi-component pulsars

From a study of the distribution of emission components in several pulsars, we find clear evidence for retardation and aberration effects in the multiple conal beams of radiation around the central core beam. This allows unique solutions for the emission height and field line location of each emission cone to be obtained. The results give emission heights in the range similar to 200 to 2200 km, with increasing height from inner to outer cones for all the pulsars; and "active" field lines in the range similar to 0.22 to 0.74 of the polar cap radius, with evidence for increasing distance from the magnetic axis from inner to outer cones, for most of the pulsars.