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Resistivity and dissipation in pulsar magnetospheres

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 March 2013

Jason Li ,
Anatoly Spitkovsky  and
Alexander Tchekhovskoy
Jason Li
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA email: [email protected]
Anatoly Spitkovsky
Affiliation:
Department of Astrophysical Sciences, Princeton University, Peyton Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA email: [email protected]
Alexander Tchekhovskoy
Affiliation:
Princeton Center for Theoretical Science, Princeton University, Jadwin Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
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Abstract

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Current models of pulsar magnetospheres typically assume either a complete absence of plasma or abundant ideal plasma filling the magnetosphere in order to compute the field structure. The latter condition is thought to be closer to reality, but we know of a number of pulsars in which the ideal conditions break down, resulting in dissipation and high-energy emission. In this work we formulate a resistive force-free scheme that allows us to consider the effects of resistive plasma and accelerating fields on the magnetospheric structure. We run numerical simulations to construct a family of resistive solutions that smoothly bridges the gap between the vacuum and the force-free magnetosphere solutions. We further provide a self-consistent model for the spin-down of intermittent pulsars, pulsars which appear to transition between radio-loud and radio-quiet states with different spin-down rates. Finally, we present models for high-energy emission from reconnecting current sheets in Gamma-ray pulsars.

Keywords

pulsars: generalgamma rays: theoryMHDacceleration of particles
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S291: Neutron Stars and Pulsars: Challenges and Opportunities after 80 years , August 2012 , pp. 287 - 290
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2013

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