[1] The sporadic emission from RRATs means that they are usually not detectable in standard periodicity searches which use Fourier techniques.
Nevertheless, underlying periodicity in RRATs can be determined by finding the greatest common denominator of the intervals between pulses.
The periods seen in some RRATs are longer than in most radio pulsars, somewhat expected for sources which are (by definition) discovered in searches for individual pulses.
[5] Cooling neutron stars have temperatures of order 1 million kelvins and so thermally emit at X-ray wavelengths.
Measurement of an x-ray spectrum allows the temperature to be determined, assuming it is thermal emission from the surface of a neutron star.
By performing periodicity searches through data, "pulsars are detected with much higher signal-to-noise ratios" than when simply looking for individual pulses.
However, assuming that when we do not detect pulses from these pulsars that they are truly 'off', several authors have proposed mechanisms whereby such sporadic emission could be explained.
Nevertheless, the possibility that RRATs share the similar emission mechanism with those pulsars with so called "giant pulses" can neither be excluded.