2012ApJ...749....2K


Query : 2012ApJ...749....2K

2012ApJ...749....2K - Astrophys. J., 749, 2 (2012/April-2)

Toward a realistic pulsar magnetosphere.

KALAPOTHARAKOS C., KAZANAS D., HARDING A. and CONTOPOULOS I.

Abstract (from CDS):

We present the magnetic and electric field structures and the currents and charge densities of pulsar magnetospheres that do not obey the ideal condition, E. B = 0. Since the acceleration of particles and the production of radiation require the presence of an electric field component parallel to the magnetic field, E{spar}, the structure of non-ideal pulsar magnetospheres is intimately related to the production of pulsar radiation. Therefore, knowledge of the structure of non-ideal pulsar magnetospheres is important because their comparison (including models for the production of radiation) with observations will delineate the physics and the parameters underlying the pulsar radiation problem. We implement a variety of prescriptions that support non-zero values for E{spar} and explore their effects on the structure of the resulting magnetospheres. We produce families of solutions that span the entire range between the vacuum and the (ideal) force-free electrodynamic solutions. We also compute the amount of dissipation as a fraction of the Poynting flux for pulsars of different angles between the rotation and magnetic axes and conclude that this is at most 20%-40% (depending on the non-ideal prescription) in the aligned rotator and 10% in the perpendicular one. We present also the limiting solutions with the property J = ρc and discuss their possible implication on the determination of the "on/off" states of the intermittent pulsars. Finally, we find that solutions with values of J greater than those needed to null E{spar} locally produce oscillations, potentially observable in the data.

Abstract Copyright: ∼

Journal keyword(s): gamma rays: stars - magnetohydrodynamics, MHD - methods: numerical - pulsars: general

Simbad objects: 4

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Number of rows : 4
N Identifier Otype ICRS (J2000)
RA
ICRS (J2000)
DEC
Mag U Mag B Mag V Mag R Mag I Sp type #ref
1850 - 2026
#notes
1 NAME Vela Pulsar Psr 08 35 20.65525 -45 10 35.1545     15.10     ~ 2446 1
2 PSR J1832+0029 Psr 18 32 50.7 +00 29 27           ~ 59 0
3 PSR J1841-0500 Psr 18 41 18.14 -05 00 19.5           ~ 54 0
4 PSR J1933+2421 Psr 19 33 37.83 +24 36 39.6           ~ 157 0

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