Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 July 2016
Extremely short and powerful subpulses were recently detected within the giant radio pulses from the Crab pulsar. We argue that these are consistent with beaming due to the curvature of field lines, and thus with coherent curvature radiation. We also demonstrate that the observed fluxes are consistent with the emission of charged relativistic solitons, generated by means of modulational instability of the Langmuir turbulence associated with sparking discharge of the pulsar's polar gap.