Related papers: Electron positron pair flow and current compositio…
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…
We present the first self-consistent global simulations of pulsar magnetospheres with operating $e^\pm$ discharge. We focus on the simple configuration of an aligned or anti-aligned rotator. The star is spun up from zero (vacuum) state to a…
Recent advances in numerical algorithms and computational power have enabled first-principles simulations of pulsar magnetospheres using Particle-in-Cell (PIC) techniques. These ab-initio simulations seem to indicate that pair creation…
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…
Global particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of pulsar magnetospheres are performed with a volume, surface and pair production-based plasma injection schemes to systematically investigate the transition between electrosphere and force-free…
(shortened) We report the results of an investigation of particle acceleration and electron-positron plasma generation at low altitude in the polar magnetic flux tubes of Rotation Powered Pulsars, when the stellar surface is free to emit…
(abridged) The physics of the pulsar magnetosphere near the neutron star surface remains poorly constrained by observations. Nevertheless it is believed that large vacuum gaps exist in the magnetosphere, and a non-neutral plasma partially…
We consider the motion of charged particles in the vacuum magnetospheres of rotating neutron stars with a strong surface magnetic field, B>10^(12) G. The electrons and positrons falling into the magnetosphere or produced in it are shown to…
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 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…
The production of electron-positron pairs in a vacuum neutron star magnetosphere is investigated for both low (compared to the Schwinger one) and high magnetic fields. The case of a strong longitudinal electric field where the produced…
With the neutron star rotating under a stationary magnetic field generating unipolar induction, charges are driven to the pulsar surface according to their signs, and are uploaded to the magnetosphere along the magnetic field lines. In the…
We perform 2.5D axisymmetric simulations of the pulsar magnetosphere (aligned dipole rotator) using the charge conservative, relativistic, electromagnetic particle in cell code PICsar. Particle in cell codes are a powerful tool to use for…
The twisted magnetospheres of magnetars must sustain a persistent flow of electron-positron plasma. The flow dynamics is controlled by the radiation field around the hot neutron star. The problem of plasma motion in the self-consistent…
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…
The equatorial current sheet in pulsar magnetospheres is often regarded as an ideal site for particle acceleration via relativistic reconnection. Using 2D spherical particle-in-cell simulations, we investigate particle acceleration in the…
Soon after the discovery of radio pulsars in 1967, the pulsars are identified as strongly magnetic (typically $10^{12}$G) rapidly rotating ($\sim 10^{2}-0.1$ Hz) neutron stars. However, the mechanism of particle acceleration in the pulsar…
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…
By means of a particle-in-cell (PIC) simulation, we study the interaction between a uniform magnetized ambient electron-proton plasma at rest and an unmagnetized pair plasma, which we inject at one simulation boundary with a mildly…
We study on the self-consistency of the pulsar polar cap model, i.e., the problem of whether the field-aligned electric field is screened by electron-positron pairs that are injected beyond the pair production front. We solve the…