2005ApJ...631..471O

Nonthermal optical emission from pulsars has been observed definitively from five objects. The model that most accurately predicts the luminosity of such emissions is that of Pacini and Salvati, a model based on synchrotron radiation originating at a constant fraction of the light cylinder. We parameterize optical emission in a similar way, obtaining the solution to the radiative transfer equation that yields expressions for the expected monochromatic luminosity and synchrotron self-absorption frequency. If due to synchrotron self-absorption, we investigate whether the rollover at IR wavelengths observed for the Crab pulsar is a process likely to be common to all the synchrotron active pulsars. Although the low-frequency turnover in the Crab pulsar spectrum may be due to a low-energy cutoff in the underlying emitting particle population or to particles emitting below their critical frequency, a test of the current self-absorption model is provided by PSR B0540-69 and the 16 ms ``Crab-like'' pulsar J0537-69. Our model, scaled relative to the Crab pulsar, predicts that PSR B0540-69 should exhibit a rollover between the L and I bands and that PSR J0537-69 may be self-absorbed at optical wavelengths with m<sub>V</sub>∼24 (dependent on the spectral index, α, where F<sub>ν</sub>~ν<sup>–α</sup>). Our model is applicable to frequency regions well outside the optical and is limited to ``young'', ``fast'' (<100 ms) pulsars.