The Parkes multi-beam pulsar survey - I. Observing and data analysis systems, discovery and timing of 100 pulsars

The Parkes multi-beam pulsar survey is a sensitive survey of a strip along the Galactic plane with \b\ < 5<degrees> and l = 260 degrees to l = 50 degrees. It uses a 13-beam receiver on the 64-m Parkes radio telescope. receiving two polarizations per beam over a 288-MHz bandwidth centred on 1374 MHz. The receiver and data acquisition systems are described in some detail. For pulsar periods in the range 0.1-2 s and dispersion measures of less than 300 cm(-3) pc, the nominal limiting flux density of the survey is about 0.2 mJy. At shorter or longer periods or higher dispersions, the sensitivity is reduced. Timing observations are carried out for pulsars discovered in the survey for 12-18 months after confirmation to obtain accurate positions, spin parameters, dispersion measures, pulse shapes and mean flux densities. The survey is proving to be extremely successful, with more than 600 pulsars discovered so far. We expect that, when complete, this one survey will come close to finding as many pulsars as all previous pulsar surveys put together. The newly discovered pulsars tend to be young, distant and of high radio luminosity. They will form a valuable sample for studies of pulsar emission properties, the Galactic distribution and evolution of pulsars, and as probes of interstellar medium properties. This paper reports the timing and pulse shape parameters for the first 100 pulsars timed at Parkes, including three pulsars with periods of less than 100 ms which are members of binary systems. These results are briefly compared with the parameters of the previously known population.