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Pulsar magnetospheres

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Abstract

The structure of both the interior and exterior pulsar magnetosphere depends upon the strength of its plasma source near the surface of the star. We review magnetospheric models in the light of a vacuum pair-production source model proposed by Sturrock, and Ruderman and Sutherland. This model predicts the existence of a cutoff, determined by the neutron star's spin rate and magnetic field strength, beyond which coherent radio emission is no longer possible. The observed distribution of pulsar spin periods and period derivatives, and the distribution of pulsars with missing radio pulses, is quantitatively consistent with the pair production threshold, when its variation of neutron star radius and moment of inertia with mass is taken into account. All neutron stars observed as pulsars can have relativistic magnetohydrodynamic wind exterior magnetospheres. The properties of the wind can be directly related to those of the pair production source. Radio pulsars cannot have relativistic plasma wave exterior magnetospheres. On the other hand, most erstwhile pulsars in the galaxy are probably halo objects that emit weak fluxes of energetic photons that can have relativistic wave exterior magnetospheres. Extinct pulsars have not been yet observed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Los Angeles, Calif., U.S.A.

    C. F. Kennel, F. S. Fujimura & R. Pellat

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  1. C. F. Kennel
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  2. F. S. Fujimura
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  3. R. Pellat
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Additional information

Proceedings of the NASA/JPL Workshop on the Physics of Planetary and Astrophysical Magnetospheres.

Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, UCLA.

Center for Plasma Physics and Fusion Engineering, UCLA.

On leave from: Centre de Physique Theorique, Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France.

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Kennel, C.F., Fujimura, F.S. & Pellat, R. Pulsar magnetospheres. Space Sci Rev 24, 407–436 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00172211

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