Galactic Orbital Effects on Pulsar Timing
  In the currently accepted paradigm, dark matter is hypothesized as an
explanation of the flat rotation curves of galaxies under the assumption of
virialized orbits. The use of millisecond pulsar timing as a probe of Galactic
dark matter content is explored as a means of relaxing this assumption. A
method of inference of the Galactic potential using the frequency derivative
$\dot{\nu}$ is produced, and an estimate for a virialized Galactic rotation
curve is given through direct observation of acceleration. The data set used
includes 210 pulsars with known $\dot{\nu}$ and astrometric properties, a
subset of which also have measured $\ddot{\nu}$. In principle, this enables the
exploration of kinematic effects, but in practice, $\ddot{\nu}$ values are
found to be too imprecise at present to adequately constrain radial velocities
of pulsars. Additionally, surface magnetic field strengths are inferred from
$\dot{\nu}$ and the magnetic spin-down contribution to $\ddot{\nu}$ is
estimated. For several pulsars the radial velocity is known, and the kinematic
contribution to $\ddot{\nu}$ is estimated accordingly. The binary orbital
periods of PSR J1713+0747 and other binary pulsars are also used to constrain
Galactic mass density models.
