Related papers: Pair-production multiplicities in rotation-powered…
We study electron-positron pair production in polar caps of energetic pulsars to determine the maximum multiplicity of pair plasma a pulsar can produce under the most favorable conditions. This paper complements and updates our study of…
We present numerical simulations of electron-positron pair cascades in the magnetospheres of magnetic neutron stars for a wide range of surface fields (B_p = 10^{12}--10^{15} G), rotation periods (0.1--10 s), and field geometries. This has…
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…
Time-dependent cascades of electron-positron pairs are thought to be the main source of plasma in pulsar magnetospheres and a primary ingredient to explain the nature of pulsar radio emission, a longstanding open problem in high-energy…
We present numerical simulations of the electron-positron plasma creation process in a simple neutron star magnetosphere. We have developed a set of cascade `kernels', which represent the endpoint of the pair cascades resulting from…
We study the efficiency of pair production in polar caps of young pulsars under a variety of conditions to estimate the maximum possible multiplicity of pair plasma in pulsar magnetospheres. We develop a semi-analytic model for calculation…
Electron-positron pair cascades developed in the extreme electromagnetic fields of neutron star polar caps are considered a key source of magnetospheric plasma in these objects. We use a simplified model that maps the Quantum…
Pulsar magnetospheres are thought to be filled with electron-positron plasma generated in pair cascades. The driving mechanism of these cascades is the emission of gamma-ray photons and their conversion into pairs via Quantum…
Neutron star magnetic fields may have polar caps (PC) that are offset from the dipole axis, through field-line sweepback near the light cylinder or non-symmetric currents within the star. The effects of such offsets on electron-positron…
We investigate a pair creation cascade in the magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating neutron star. We solve the set of the Poisson equation for the electro-static potential and the Boltzmann equations for electrons, positrons, and gamma-ray…
Using a simplified model of cascade pair creation over pulsar polar caps presented in two previous papers, we investigate the expected gamma-ray output from pulsars' low altitude particle acceleration and pair creation regions. We divide…
Here we briefly report on first results of self-consistent simulation of non-stationary electron-positron cascades in the polar cap of pulsar using specially developed hybrid PIC/Monte-Carlo numerical code. We consider the case of…
The study of physical processes associated with particle acceleration in the open field line region above the polar cap (PC) of an isolated neutron star (NS) plays a fundamental role in our understanding and interpretation of high-energy…
We investigate the conditions required for the production of electron-positron pairs above a pulsar polar cap (PC) and the influence of pair production on the energetics of the primary particle acceleration. Assuming space-charge limited…
Using an analytic, axisymmetric approach that includes general relativity, coupled to a condition for pair production deduced from simulations, we derive general results about the spatial distribution of pair-producing field lines over the…
The results of Monte-Carlo simulations of electron-positron-photon cascades initiated by slow electrons in circularly polarized fields of ultra-high strength are presented and discussed. Our results confirm previous qualitative estimations…
The double and single differential cross-sections with respect to positron and electron energies as well as the total cross-section of triplet production in the laboratory frame are calculated numerically in order to develop a Monte Carlo…
It was recently proposed that the electric field oscillation as a result of self-consistent $e^{\pm}$ pair production may be the source of coherent radio emission from pulsars. Direct Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations of this process have…
We report on the first self-consistent multidimensional particle-in-cell numerical simulations of non-homogeneous pair discharges in polar caps of rotation-powered pulsars. By introducing strong inhomogeneities in the initial plasma…
We modify the conventional curvature radiation (inverse Compton scattering) + synchrotron radiation polar cap cascade model by including the inverse Compton scattering of the higher generation pairs. Within the framework of the…