Related papers: Current closure in the pulsar magnetosphere
The pulsar magnetosphere is divided into a corotating region of closed field lines surrounded by open field lines that emanate from the two poles of the star, extend to infinity and are separated by an equatorial current sheet. The three…
We continue our investigation of particle acceleration in the pulsar equatorial current sheet (ECS) that began with Contopoulos (2019) and Contopoulos & Stefanou (2019). Our basic premise has been that the charge carriers in the current…
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…
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…
We want to understand what drives magnetospheric dissipation in the equatorial current sheet. Numerical simulations have limitations and, unless we have a clear a priori understanding of the physical processes involved, their results can be…
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…
Rough estimates and upper limits on current and particle densities form the basis of most of the canonical pulsar models. Whereas the surface of the rotating neutron star is capable of supplying sufficient charges to provide a current that,…
The present work is our first attempt to understand the role of reconnection in the pulsar magnetosphere. Our discussion is based on the observationaly infered fact that, as the pulsar spins down, the region of closed corotating dipolar…
Contopoulos 2019 proposed that a dissipation zone develops in the magnetosphere of young pulsars at the edge of the closed-line region beyond the light cylinder. This is necessary in order to supply the charge carriers that will establish…
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…
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…
We present the first new type of solution of the pulsar equation since 1999. In it, the whole magnetosphere is confined inside the light cylinder and an electrically charged layer wraps around it and holds it together. The reason this new…
Force-free pulsar magnetospheres develop a large scale poloidal electric current circuit that flows along open magnetic field lines from the neutron star to the termination shock. The electric current closes through the interior of the…
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…
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…
In this paper we consider stationary force-free magnetosphere of an aligned rotator when plasma in the open field line region rotates differentially due to presence of a zone with the accelerating electric field in the polar cap of pulsar.…
We performed ab-initio Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations of a pulsar magnetosphere with electron-positron plasma produced only in the regions close to the neutron star surface. We study how the magnetosphere transitions from the vacuum to…
We present the magnetic and electric field structures as well as the currents and charge densities of pulsar magnetospheres which do not obey the ideal condition, ${\bf E \cdot B =0}$. Since the acceleration of particles and the production…
We show that toroidal magnetic field annihilation in the equatorial current sheet of the pulsar magnetosphere is related to how fast poloidal magnetic field lines close as we move away from the light cylinder. This determines the…
We argue that existing models of the ideal pulsar magnetosphere are incorrect because of the improper treatment of the singular current layer outside the light cylinder. We simulated the axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere in the Force-Free…