Closing Comments: Theory

Extract

Though it had been circulating through the grapevine for more than ten years, it is now widely known that the ion work function on the neutronstar surface is so low that the surface may not even be a solid (Kössl et al. 1988). In this meeting the issue surfaced in the review by Arons, and came up in many discussions by the participants. A view was expressed that since a real “professional” calculation is not yet available, one should reserve judgement on this issue. However, three different methods lead to about the same value, a fraction of a keV, for the ion work function. Furthermore, the polar cap region in pulsars will be hot and will have strong electromagnetic fields. Thus easy extraction of ions from the stellar surface appears most likely.