Related papers: Pulsar Sparking: What if mountains on the surface?
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…
Pulsars and neutron stars are generally more massive than the Sun, whereas black holes have unlimited mass-spectrum, though the mass-gap between 2 - 5$M_\odot$, which applies for both classes, is evident and remains puzzling. Based on the…
We estimate the contribution of Galactic pulsars, both ordinary and millisecond pulsars (MSPs), to the high-energy (>100 MeV) gamma-ray background. We pay particular attention to the high-latitude part of the background that could be…
Pulsar timing observations have revealed planets around only a few pulsars. We suggest that the rarity of these planets is due mainly to two effects. First, we show that the most likely formation mechanism requires the destruction of a…
We study the magnetospheric activity in the polar cap region of pulsars under stellar oscillations. The toroidal oscillation of the star propagates into the magnetosphere, which provides additional voltage due to unipolar induction, changes…
Little attention has so far been paid to the division of the observed population between pulsars of the two spin directions that are possible. Almost all pulsars with positive corotational charge density at the polar caps are expected to…
Pulsar-like objects are extremely compact, with an average density that exceeds nuclear saturation density, where the fundamental strong interaction plays an essential role, particularly in the low-energy regime. The internal structures and…
The observed velocities of radio pulsars, which range in the hundreds kilometers per second, and many of which exceed 1000 km/s, are not explained by the standard physics of the supernova explosion. However, if a sterile neutrino with mass…
Pulsars are spinning neutron stars with very regular periods. These pulsars have, however, had instances where they exhibit a change in their periods. Older theories have shown that older pulsars have a tendency to skip and speed up. Newer…
It is a pity that the real state of matter in pulsar-like stars is still not determined confidently because of the uncertainty about cold matter at supranuclear density, even 40 years after the discovery of pulsar. Nuclear matter (related…
A typical young pulsar slows down at an imperceptible rate, its spin period increasing by less than 10 microseconds over the course of a year. However, the inertia of a pulsar is so extreme that to effect this tiny change in rotation rate,…
The magnetic fields of neutron stars have a large range (~3e10 - 1e15 G). There may be a tendency for more highly magnetized neutron stars to come from more massive stellar progenitors, but other factors must also play a role. When combined…
It is suggested in this paper that the `bare' strange star might be not bare, and there could be a magnetosphere around it. As a strange star might be an intensely magnetized rotator, the induced unipolar electric field would be large…
Recent measurement of a high millisecond pulsar mass (PSR J1614-2230, 1.97+-0.04 Msun) compared with the low mass of PSR J0751+1807 (1.26+-0.14 Msun) indicates a large span of masses of recycled pulsars and suggests a broad range of neutron…
The presence of quark matter in neutron star interiors may have distinctive signatures in basic observables such as (i) masses and radii [1], (ii) surface temperatures versus age [2], (iii) spin-down rates of milli-second pulsars [3], and…
The origin of pulsar radio emission is one of the old puzzles in theoretical astrophysics. In this Letter we present a global kinetic plasma simulation which shows from first-principles how and where radio emission can be produced in pulsar…
The long-standing assumption of symmetric radio emission beams from the two magnetic poles of pulsars is challenged by observational evidence of asymmetry and underfill. Direct testing of this symmetry remains difficult for most pulsars. As…
We observed the nearby 100$\%$-duty-cycle radio pulsar B0950+08 using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). We obtained the polarization profile for its entire rotation, which enabled us to investigate its…
We propose a vacuum gap (VG) model which can be applied uniformly for normal and high magnetic field pulsars. The model requires strong and non-dipolar surface magnetic field near the pulsar polar cap. We assume that the actual surface…
Low mass particles with small electric charges can be produced abundantly in large electric fields via the Schwinger effect. We study the production rate of such particles inside the polar gap of nearby pulsars. After production they are…