The boundary of a pulsar magnetosphere. Gamma-ray pulsars.
Abstract
The energetics of an aligned or nearly aligned pulsar magnetosphere are considered and the boundary is interpreted as that region in which the principal energetic processes take place. It is argued that these processes occur at or near the light cylinder and that they consist primarily of gamma ray emission and classical magnetic dipole radiation. The gamma ray emission becomes dominant at very small angles of nonalignment as the dipole radiation is reduced by alignment. This dominance of the gamma ray emission represents the late stages of pulsar evolution.
- Publication:
-
Magnetospheric Boundary Layers
- Pub Date:
- August 1979
- Bibcode:
- 1979ESASP.148..281H
- Keywords:
-
- Boundary Layer Plasmas;
- Gamma Rays;
- Pulsar Magnetospheres;
- Pulsars;
- Stellar Atmospheres;
- Alignment;
- Dipole Moments;
- Energy Dissipation;
- Light Curve;
- Stellar Evolution;
- Astrophysics;
- Gamma Rays:Pulsars;
- Magnetospheres:Pulsars