THE GREEN BANK TELESCOPE 350 MHz DRIFT-SCAN SURVEY. I. SURVEY OBSERVATIONS AND THE DISCOVERY OF 13 PULSARS

Over the summer of 2007, we obtained 1191 hr of "drift-scan" pulsar search observations with the Green Bank Telescope at a radio frequency of 350 MHz. Here we describe the survey setup, search procedure, and the discovery and follow-up timing of 13 pulsars. Among the new discoveries, one (PSR J1623-0841) was discovered only through its single pulses, two (PSRs J1327-0755 and J1737-0814) are millisecond pulsars, and another (PSR J2222-0137) is a mildly recycled pulsar. PSR J1327-0755 is a 2.7 ms pulsar at a dispersion measure (DM) of 27.9 pc cm super(-3) in an 8.7 day orbit with a minimum companion mass of 0.22 M sub([middot in circle]). PSR J1737-0814 is a 4.2 ms pulsar at a DM of 55.3 pc cm super(-3) in a 79.3 day orbit with a minimum companion mass of 0.06 M sub([middot in circle]). PSR J2222-0137 is a 32.8 ms pulsar at a very low DM of 3.27 pc cm super(-3) in a 2.4 day orbit with a minimum companion mass of 1.11 M[middot in circle]. It is most likely a white-dwarf-neutron-star system or an unusual low-eccentricity double neutron star system. Ten other pulsars discovered in this survey are reported in the companion paper Lynch et al.