Large European Array of Pulsars

Pulsars are known as highly stable rotators, and thus, precise clocks. Radio pulsar timing has been demonstrated to be a powerful tool in gravity tests, in particular with binary pulsar systems and a pulsar timing array (PTA) to detect gravitational waves. The current state-of-the-art timing experiment is mostly limited by instrumental sensitivity, and can be greatly improved by the increase of telescope gain. In this talk, I will give an overview of the Large European Array for Pulsars (LEAP) project, which is one of the path-finders for the next generation of radio telescopes. LEAP combines the five largest European radio telescopes in a coherent fashion, forming a phased array with sensitivity rivalling presently the largest single dish on the earth, Arecibo, and with wider sky coverage. Pulsar timing with LEAP will significantly improve the precision of the current gravity experiments and the sensitivity of the PTAs, which may deliver the first direct detection of gravitational wave. In parallel, LEAP will also enable a variety of pulsar-related scientific investigations, e.g., single pulse variability, pulsar polarisation & emission mechanism, pulsar searching, interstellar medium, reference frame, etc.