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Electrodynamics of Disk-Accreting Magnetic Neutron Stars

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

M. Coleman Miller ,
Frederick K. Lamb  and
Russell J. Hamilton
M. Coleman Miller
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801-3080
Frederick K. Lamb
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801-3080
Russell J. Hamilton
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign, 1110 West Green Street, Urbana, IL 61801-3080

Abstract

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We have investigated the electrodynamics of magnetic neutron stars accreting from Keplerian disks and the implications for particle acceleration and γ-ray emission by such systems. We argue that the particle density in the magnetospheres of such stars is larger by orders of magnitude than the Goldreich-Julian density, so that the formation of vacuum gaps is unlikely. We show that even if the star rotates slowly, electromotive forces ( EMFs ) of order 1015 V are produced by the interaction of plasma in the accretion disk with the magnetic field of the neutron star. The resistance of the disk-magnetosphere-star circuit is small, and hence these EMFs drive very large conduction currents. Such large currents are likely to produce magnetospheric instabilities, such as relativistic double layers and reconnection events, that can accelerate electrons or ions to very high energies.

Subject headings: acceleration of particles — accretion, accretion disks — MHD — stars: neutron

Type
Poster Papers
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 142: Particle Acceleration Phenomena in Astrophysical Plasmas , 1994 , pp. 833 - 835
Copyright
Copyright © The American Astronomical Society 1994

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