Related papers: Full simulation of the open field lines above puls…
We investigate the physical situation above the pulsar polar cap (PC) where the accelerating primaries (electrons) are not capable of producing sufficient numbers of electron-positron pairs at low altitudes (within 1-2 stellar radii above…
The study of physical processes associated with particle acceleration in the open field line region above the polar cap (PC) of an isolated neutron star (NS) plays a fundamental role in our understanding and interpretation of high-energy…
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…
Using an analytic, axisymmetric approach that includes general relativity, coupled to a condition for pair production deduced from simulations, we derive general results about the spatial distribution of pair-producing field lines over the…
We investigate self-consistent particle acceleration near a pulsar polar cap (PC) by the electrostatic field due to the effect of inertial frame dragging. Test particles gain energy from the electric field parallel to the open magnetic…
To explain the pulsed emission of the rotation powered pulsars from radio to gamma-ray, the polar cap models, the slot gap models, and the outer gap models are proposed. The recent observations suggest that these models are likely to…
I argue that the problem of electromagnetically driven electron-positron cascades in magnetospheres of neutron stars must be addressed starting from first principles. I describe a general numerical algorithm for doing self-consistent…
We present first-principles relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of the oblique pulsar magnetosphere with pair formation. The magnetosphere starts to form with particles extracted from the surface of the neutron star. These particles…
An analytical model for oscillating pair creation above the pulsar polar cap is presented in which the parallel electric field is treated as a large amplitude, superluminal, electrostatic wave. An exact formalism for such wave is derived in…
The ability of the neutron star surface to supply all or only part of the charges filling the pulsar magnetosphere is crucial for the physics prevailing within it, with direct consequences for the possible formation of pair creation…
Pulsar magnetospheres are thought to be filled with electron-positron plasma generated in pair cascades. The driving mechanism of these cascades is the emission of gamma-ray photons and their conversion into pairs via Quantum…
Electric currents j flow along the open magnetic field lines from the polar caps of neutron stars. Activity of a polar cap depends on the ratio \alpha=j/c\rho_GJ, where \rho_GJ is the corotation charge density. The customary assumption…
We present numerical simulations of electron-positron pair cascades in the magnetospheres of magnetic neutron stars for a wide range of surface fields (B_p = 10^{12}--10^{15} G), rotation periods (0.1--10 s), and field geometries. This has…
We investigate a pair creation cascade in the magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating neutron star. We solve the set of the Poisson equation for the electro-static potential and the Boltzmann equations for electrons, positrons, and gamma-ray…
Time-dependent cascades of electron-positron pairs are thought to be the main source of plasma in pulsar magnetospheres and a primary ingredient to explain the nature of pulsar radio emission, a longstanding open problem in high-energy…
We discuss the creation of electron-positron cascades in the context of pulsar polar cap acceleration models and derive several useful analytic and semi-analytic results for the spatial extent and energy response of the cascade. Instead of…
We study electron-positron pair production in polar caps of energetic pulsars to determine the maximum multiplicity of pair plasma a pulsar can produce under the most favorable conditions. This paper complements and updates our study of…
Here we briefly report on first results of self-consistent simulation of non-stationary electron-positron cascades in the polar cap of pulsar using specially developed hybrid PIC/Monte-Carlo numerical code. We consider the case of…
It was recently proposed that the electric field oscillation as a result of self-consistent $e^{\pm}$ pair production may be the source of coherent radio emission from pulsars. Direct Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of this process have…
We report on the first self-consistent multidimensional particle-in-cell numerical simulations of non-homogeneous pair discharges in polar caps of rotation-powered pulsars. By introducing strong inhomogeneities in the initial plasma…