Related papers: The Pulsating Pulsar Magnetosphere
The magnetospheres of magnetars are believed to be filled with electron-positron plasma generated by electric discharge. We present a first direct numerical experiment showing how the plasma is created in an axisymmetric closed…
Force-free electrodynamics describes the electromagnetic field of the magnetically dominated plasma found near pulsars and active black holes, but gives no information about the underlying particles that ultimately produce the observable…
The self-consistent two-fluid model of the pulsar magnetosphere is considered. We concentrate on the case of vanishingly small inertia of the particles. Our approach allows to obtain the realistic particle distributions sustaining the…
We perform first-principles relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of aligned pulsar magnetosphere. We allow free escape of particles from the surface of a neutron star and continuously populate the magnetosphere with neutral pair plasma…
The motion of electrons and positrons in the vacuum magnetosphere of a neutron star with a surface magnetic field of B~10^12 G is considered. Particles created in the magnetosphere or falling into it from outside are virtually…
The global structure of the current flows in pulsar magnetospheres is investigated, with rough calculations of the elements in the magnetospheric circuit. It is emphasized that the potential of critical field lines is the same as that of…
The stationary axisymmetric force-free magnetosphere of a pulsar is studied analytically. The pulsar equation is solved in the region close to the magnetic axis. Proceeding from linearization of the current function in the axial region, we…
In view of recent efforts to probe the physical conditions in the pulsar current sheet, we revisit the standard solution that describes the main elements of the ideal force-free pulsar magnetosphere. The simple physical requirement that the…
Pulsar magnetospheres have strong magnetic fields and large amounts of plasma. The structures of these magnetospheres are studied using force-free electrodynamics. To understand pulsar magnetospheres, discussions must include their outer…
Most studies of the pulsar magnetosphere have assumed a pure magnetic dipole in flat spacetime. However, recent work suggests that the effects of general relativity are in fact of vital importance and that realistic pulsar magnetic fields…
We reconsider pulsar electrodynamics for an obliquely rotating pulsar, and propose a way of synthesizing the vacuum dipole model (VDM) and the rotating magnetosphere model (RMM). We first modify the VDM by assuming that the parallel…
First I emphasize the magnetospheric loop current system induced by the wind activity. Next, I address the formation of the field-aligned electric field. An interesting aspect is the reaction of the inner magnetosphere to an induced…
Pulsar spindown forms a reliable yet enigmatic prototype for the energy loss processes in many astrophysical objects including accretion disks and back holes. In this paper we review the physics of pulsar magnetospheres, concentrating on…
We show that FFE (Force-Free Electrodynamics) describes pulsar magnetospheres -- even when radiation and particle wind power are comparable to the spin-down power. At the same time, we show that FFE is insufficient for calculating pulsar…
The accumulation of electrons and positrons in the vacuum magnetosphere of a neutron star with a surface magnetic field of B~10^12 G is considered. It is shown that particles created in the magnetosphere or falling into the magnetosphere…
We report on a remarkable class of exact solutions to force-free electrodynamics that has four-current along the light cones of an arbitrary timelike worldline in flat spacetime. No symmetry is assumed, and the solutions are given in terms…
Magnetospheres of pulsars are thought to be filled with plasma, and variations in plasma supply can affect both pulsar emission properties and spin-down rates. A number of recently discovered "intermittent" pulsars switch between two…
We investigate the centrifugal acceleration in an axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere under the ideal-MHD approximation. We solved the field-aligned equations of motion for flows inside the current sheet with finite thickness. We find that…
Pulsar magnetospheres are shaped by ultra-relativistic electron/positron plasmas flowing in a strong magnetic field and subject to strong gravitational fields. The former induces magnetospheric currents and space charges responsible for the…
Pulsar magnetospheres are filled with relativistic pairs copiously emitting photons detected from the radio wavelengths up to high and very high energies, in the GeV and sometimes in the TeV range. Efficient particle acceleration converts…