Neutron stars in globular clusters: catch and loose

Millisecond radio pulsars are abundant in globular clusters, as are
their progenitors, the X-ray binaries. They are formed in close
encounters between neutron stars and other stars and binaries, as
realized soon after their discovery.  A binary with a neutron star
formed by a close encounter is in turn subject to further, secondary
encounters. I describe my research with Paulo Freire (MPI
f. Radioastronomie, Bonn) on possible relations between such secondary
encounters and the observed properties of radio pulsars in globular
clusters, and on a possible explanation for apparently young pulsars
among them.