On Pair Production in the Crab Pulsar
Astrophysics
2009-10-30 v1
Abstract
We consider the widespread assumption that coherent pulsar radio emission is based on extended pair production leading to plasma densities highly exceeding the Goldreich-Julian density. We show as an example that the observed low frequency (160 MHz) emission of the Crab pulsar is incompatible to the model of extended pair production. Our results rule out significant pair production if a plasma process is responsible for coherence and the radio emission originates from inside the light cylinder.
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/9808047,
title = {On Pair Production in the Crab Pulsar},
author = {Thomas Kunzl and Harald Lesch and Axel Jessner and Alexis von Hoensbroech},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/9808047},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
accepted for publication in ApJ Letters; 4 pages, no figures