F. A. Kniazev, A. Yu. Istomin, V. S. Beskin

The data from the FAST and MeerKAT surveys has significantly increased the number of radio pulsars for which the polarization characteristics of their mean profiles have been determined in detail. This has allowed us to confirm earlier conclusions both about the nature of propagation of two orthogonal modes in the pulsar magnetospheres and about the mechanism of particle production in neutron star polar regions and their evolutionary features. We can now say with even greater confidence that mean profiles formed by the O-mode are significantly wider than those formed by the X-mode. Moreover, the observations confirm the validity of the classical Ruderman-Sutherland vacuum model of particle generation, as well as the evolution of the inclination angles of the magnetic axis to the rotation one in the direction of $90^{\circ}$.