Related papers: Particle acceleration in pulsar magnetospheres
A self-consistent electrodynamics of a particle accelerator in a rotating neutron-star magnetosphere is investigated on the two-dimensional poloidal plane. Solving the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential together with the…
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…
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…
We investigate the particle accelerator that arises in a rotating neutron-star magnetosphere. Solving the Poisson equation for the electro-static potential, the Boltzmann equations for relativistic electrons and positrons, and the radiative…
We explore particle accelerator electrodynamics in the magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating neutron star (NS). We address the importance of a self-consistent treatment of pair production, solving the Poisson equation describing the…
Pulsars have been identified as good candidates for the acceleration of cosmic rays, up to ultra-high energies. However, a precise description of the acceleration processes at play is still to be established. Using 2D particle-in-cell…
A synthesis of the present knowledge on gamma-ray emission from the magnetosphere of a rapidly rotating neutron star is presented, focusing on the electrodynamics of particle accelerators. The combined curvature, synchrotron, and…
We investigate the self-consistent electrodynamic structure of a particle accelerator in the Crab pulsar magnetosphere on the two-dimensional poloidal plane, solving the Poisson equation for the electrostatic potential together with the…
We discuss the creation of electron-positron cascades in the context of pulsar polar cap acceleration models and derive several useful analytic and semi-analytic results for the spatial extent and energy response of the cascade. Instead of…
We investigate self-consistent particle acceleration near a pulsar polar cap (PC) by the electrostatic field due to the effect of inertial frame dragging. Test particles gain energy from the electric field parallel to the open magnetic…
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…
We perform first-principles relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of aligned pulsar magnetosphere. We allow free escape of particles from the surface of a neutron star and continuously populate the magnetosphere with neutral pair plasma…
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…
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…
In this paper, we discuss the results of a new particle pusher in realistic ultra-strong electromagnetic fields as those encountered around rotating neutron stars. After presenting results of this algorithm in simple fields and comparing…
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 investigate the physical situation above the pulsar polar cap (PC) where the accelerating primaries (electrons) are not capable of producing sufficient numbers of electron-positron pairs at low altitudes (within 1-2 stellar radii above…
We revisit particle acceleration in the polar cap region of a neutron star by taking into account both general relativistic effects and the presence of toroidal oscillations at the star surface. In particular, we address the question of…
In this paper we present the results of time-dependent simulations of dipolar axisymmetric magnetospheres of neutron stars carried out both within the framework of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and within the framework of resistive…
For sufficiently strong magnetic fields and/or low temperatures, the neutron star surface may be in a condensed state with little gas or plasma above it. Such surface condensation can significantly affect the thermal emission from isolated…