Lutz-Kelker bias in pulsar parallax measurements

Lutz and Kelker showed that parallax measurements are systematically overestimated because they do not properly account for the larger volume of space that is sampled at smaller parallax values. We apply their analysis to neutron stars, incorporating the bias introduced by the intrinsic radio luminosity function and a realistic Galactic population model for neutron stars. We estimate the bias for all published neutron star parallax measurements and find that measurements with less than similar to 95 per cent certainty are likely to be significantly biased. Through inspection of historic parallax measurements, we confirm the described effects in optical and radio measurements as well as in distance estimates based on interstellar dispersion measures. The potential impact on future tests of relativistic gravity through pulsar timing and on X-ray-based estimates of neutron star radii is briefly discussed.