Related papers: Radiative pulsar magnetospheres: oblique rotators
(Abridged) Gamma-ray emission from pulsars has long been modeled using a vacuum dipole field. This approximation ignores changes in the field structure caused by the magnetospheric plasma and strong plasma currents. We present the first…
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…
We propose a simple analytic model for the innermost (within the light cylinder of canonical radius) structure of open-magnetic-field lines of a rotating neutron star (NS) with relativistic outflow of charged particles (electrons/positrons)…
Highly magnetized neutron stars are promising candidates to explain some of the most peculiar astronomical phenomena, for instance, fast radio bursts, gamma-ray bursts, and superluminous supernovae. Pulsations of these highly magnetized…
We consider the force-free magnetosphere of an aligned rotator. Its structure is well described by a Grad-Shafranov equation for poloidal magnetic field, the so-called "pulsar equation". We solve this equation by a multigrid method with…
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…
Rotating neutron stars, or pulsars, are plausibly the source of power behind many astrophysical systems, such as gamma-ray bursts, supernovae, pulsar wind nebulae and supernova remnants. In the past several years, 3D numerical simulations…
Extinct radio pulsars, in which stationary, self-sustaining generation of a relativistic electron-positron plasma becomes impossible when rotation brakes down, can be sources of a subrelativistic flux of positrons and electrons. We assume…
Neutron stars are fascinating astrophysical objects immersed in strong gravitational and electromagnetic fields, at the edge of our current theories. These stars manifest themselves mostly as pulsars, emitting a timely very stable and…
In magnetized astrophysical outflows, the dissipation of field energy into particle energy via magnetic reconnection is often invoked to explain the observed non-thermal signatures. By means of two- and three-dimensional particle-in-cell…
We study two different physical scenarios of thermonuclear reactions in stellar plasmas proceeding through a narrow resonance at low energy or through the low energy wing of a wide resonance at high energy. Correspondingly, we derive two…
A model of fast radio bursts, which enlists young, short period extragalactic magnetars satisfying $B/P > 2 \times 10^{16}$~G~s$^{-1}$ (1~G = 1~statvolt~cm$^{-1}$) as the source, is proposed. When the parallel component $\bE_\parallel$ of…
We examine the possibility that fast radio bursts (FRBs) are emitted inside the magnetosphere of a magnetar. On its way out, the radio wave must interact with a low-density $e^\pm$ plasma in the outer magnetosphere at radii…
A new mechanism of particle acceleration to ultra high energies, driven by the rotational slow down of a pulsar (Crab pulsar, for example), is explored. The rotation, through the time dependent centrifugal force, can very efficiently excite…
Relativistic electron-positron winds with strong magnetic fields are considered as a source of radiation for cosmological $\gamma$-ray bursters. Such a wind is generated by a millisecond pulsar with a very strong magnetic field. An…
The pulsar magnetosphere contains a strongly magnetized, relativistic plasma. We need to understand the physics of that plasma if we want to connect the data to the models. Our group in Socorro is mixing theory and observations in order to…
Magnetic fields in rotating and radiating astrophysical plasma can be produced due to a radiative interaction between plasma layers moving relative to each other. The efficiency of current drive, and with it the associated dynamo effect, is…
Based on the exact dipolar solution of the pulsar equation the self-consistent two-fluid model of the pulsar magnetosphere is developed. We concentrate on the low-mass limit of the model, taking into account the radiation damping. As a…
This review discusses the physics of magnetic reconnection, a process in which the magnetic field topology changes and magnetic energy is converted to kinetic energy, in pair plasmas in the relativistic regime. We focus on recent progress…
The magnetosphere of, and electromagnetic (EM) radiation from pulsars are usually described in the framework of classical electrodynamics. For some pulsars, however, whose emission heights are relatively close to the surface of the neutron…