Summary
We study the wave propagation modes in the relativistic streaming pair plasma of the magnetospheres of pulsars and magnetars, focusing on the vacuum polarization effect. We show that the combined plasma and vacuum polarization effects give rise to a vacuum resonance, where “avoided mode crossing” occurs between the extraordinary mode and the (superluminous) ordinary mode. When a photon propagates from the vacuum-polarization-dominated region at small radii to the plasma-dominated region at large radii, its polarization state may undergo significant change across the vacuum resonance. Some possible applications of our results are discussed, such as polarization changes at high frequency for radio emission of pulsars and possibly magnetars.
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Wang, C., Lai, D. (2009). Wave Modes in the Magnetospheres of Pulsars and Magnetars. In: Hasan, S.S., Gangadhara, R.T., Krishan, V. (eds) Turbulence, Dynamos, Accretion Disks, Pulsars and Collective Plasma Processes. Astrophysics and Space Science Proceedings. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8868-1_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-8868-1_11
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