The axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere - I.
Abstract
The paper proposes a model for the magnetosphere of a pulsar with the magnetic and rotation axes aligned. There is a basic similarity to Jackson's model, in that there is no energy loss through a steady pulsar wind. Electrons pulled out of the polar regions are driven across the light-cylinder by centrifugal force, moderated by the electric force component along the magnetic field. Just beyond the light-cylinder the electrons become highly relativistic and emit high-frequency radiation, which carries away energy and angular momentum, so braking the star. This radiative dissipation forces the electrons to migrate across the magnetic field-lines towards the equator, to be driven back to the star by the electric field. A program is outlined for the construction of mutually self-consistent, magnetic, electric and particle fields.
- Publication:
-
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
- Pub Date:
- August 1979
- DOI:
- 10.1093/mnras/188.2.385
- Bibcode:
- 1979MNRAS.188..385M
- Keywords:
-
- Atmospheric Models;
- Pulsar Magnetospheres;
- Pulsars;
- Stellar Atmospheres;
- Electric Fields;
- Electrons;
- Lines Of Force;
- Neutron Stars;
- Relativistic Particles;
- Stellar Magnetic Fields;
- Stellar Models;
- Astrophysics;
- Magnetospheres:Pulsars;
- Pulsars:Models