Related papers: Pulsars: Progress, Problems and Prospects
A model for slow radio pulsars is proposed which involves the entire magnetosphere in the production of the observed radio emission. It is argued that observations of pulsar profiles suggest that a feedback mechanism exists between the star…
Rapidly rotating neutron stars blow a relativistic, magnetized wind mainly composed of electron-positron pairs. The free expansion of the wind terminates far from the neutron star where a weakly magnetized pulsar wind nebula forms, implying…
In recent years, surprise discoveries of pulsed emission from the Crab and Vela pulsars above 100 GeV have drawn renewed attention to this largely unexplored region of the energy range. In this paper, we discuss example light curves due to…
Fast magnetosonic waves in a magnetically-dominated plasma are investigated. In the pulsar wind, these waves may transport a significant fraction of the energy flux. It is shown that the nonlinear steepening and subsequent formation of…
We present, for the first time, the structure of the axisymmetric force-free magnetosphere of an aligned rotating magnetic dipole, in the case in which there exists a sufficiently large charge density (whose origin we do not question) to…
It is generally believed that pulsars dissipate their rotational energy through powerful winds of relativistic particles. Confinement of these winds leads to the formation of luminous pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) seen across the…
Modifications to polar-gap models for pulsars are discussed for the case where the surface magnetic field, $B_\S$, of the neutron star is strong. For $B\ga4\times10^8\rm\,T$, the curvature $\gamma$-quanta emitted tangentially to the curved…
Detailed modeling of the high-energy emission from gamma-ray binaries has been propounded as a path to pulsar wind physics. Fulfilling this ambition requires a coherent model of the flow and its emission in the region where the pulsar wind…
Magnetohydrodynamic waves interact with structured plasmas and reveal the internal magnetic and thermal structures therein, thereby having seismological applications in the solar atmosphere. We investigate the evolution of fast…
There is growing evidence that some variable high-energy gamma-ray sources are associated with pulsar wind nebulae. We review the current status of X-ray and radio studies of the sources most likely to be significant emitters above 100 MeV.…
We explore the pulsar slot gap electrodynamics up to very high altitudes, where for most relatively rapidly rotating pulsars both the standard small-angle approximation and the assumption that the magnetic field lines are ideal stream lines…
Pulsars are one of the possible final stages in the evolution of massive stars. If a supernova explosion is anisotropic, it can give the pulsar a powerful kick, propelling it to supersonic speeds. The resulting pulsar wind nebula is…
Current closure in the pulsar magnetosphere holds the key to its structure. We must determine not only the global electric circuit, but also the source of its electric charge carriers. We address this issue with the minimum number of…
For pulsars similar to the one in the Crab Nebula, most of the energy input to the surrounding wind nebula occurs on a timescale of less than 1000 years; during this time, the nebula expands into freely expanding supernova ejecta. On a…
It has recently been shown that there is a close correlation between the slowdown rates and the pulse shapes of six pulsars, and between the slowdown rates and the flux density of three others. This indicates that these phenomena are…
Pulsars are known to display short-term variability. Recently, examples of longer-term emission variability have emerged that are often correlated with changes in the rotational properties of the pulsar. To further illuminate this…
We have made polarimetric monitoring observations of millisecond pulsars visible from the northern hemisphere at 1410 MHz. Their emission properties are compared with those of normal pulsars. Although we demonstrated in paper I that…
Energy dissipation in collisionless plasmas is one of the most outstanding open questions in plasma physics. Magnetic reconnection and turbulence are two phenomena that can produce the conditions for energy dissipation. These two phenomena…
An observational model is presented for the spectra of young rotation-powered pulsars and their nebulae based on a study of nine bright Crab-like pulsar systems observed with the Chandra X-ray observatory. A significant correlation is…
A pulsar wind is a relativistic outflow dominated by Poynting energy at its base. Based on the standard ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) with the ordered magnetic field, the observed slow expansion $v_{\rm…