Related papers: On the pulsar Y-point
(abridged) The physics of the pulsar magnetosphere remains poorly constrained by observations. Little is known about their emission mechanism. Large vacuum gaps probably exist, and a non-neutral plasma partially fills the neutron star…
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…
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 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…
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 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…
The magnetar magnetosphere is gradually twisted by shearing from footpoint motion, and stored magnetic energy also increases at the same time. When a state exceeds a threshold, flares/outbursts manifest themselves as a result of a…
Force-free neutron star magnetospheres are nowadays well known and found through numerical simulations. Even extension to general relativity has recently been achieved. However, those solutions are by definition dissipationless, meaning…
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…
An oblique pulsar magnetosphere with a plasma conductivity is studied by using a pseudo-spectral method. In the pseudo-spectral method, the time-dependent Maxwell equations are solved, both electric and magnetic fields are expanded in terms…
We show that energy should be dissipated or extracted in the current sheet (CS) of a split magnetosphere deviating from the Michel split monopole, with the CS heating up or cooling down. But the electromagnetic energy remains unchanged…
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…
We propose a simple physical picture for the generation of coherent radio emission in the axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere that is quite different from the canonical paradigm of radio emission coming from the magnetic polar caps. In this…
The magnetic field of magnetars may be twisted compared with that of normal pulsars. Previous works mainly discussed magnetic energy release in the closed field line regions of magnetars. For a twisted magnetic field, the field lines will…
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…
The effective potential energy of the particles in the field of rotating uniformly magnetized celestial body is investigated. The axis of rotation coincides with the axis of the magnetic field. Electromagnetic field of the body is composed…
The current state of the art in pulsar magnetosphere modeling assumes the force-free limit of magnetospheric plasma. This limit retains only partial information about plasma velocity and neglects plasma inertia and temperature. We carried…
A new model of the pulsar force-free magnetosphere is suggested, which includes the presence of the polar, outer and slot gaps. It is based on a new exact solution of the pulsar equation in the form of an offset monopole and the resultant…
We revisit the Blandford & Znajek (1977) process and solve the fundamental equation that governs the structure of the steady-state force-free magnetosphere around a Kerr black hole. The solution depends on the distributions of the magnetic…
We find a class of twisted and differentially rotating neutron star magnetospheres that do not have a light cylinder, generate no wind and thus do not spin-down. The magnetosphere is composed of embedded differentially rotating flux…