Abstract
IT has been recognized that the very high surface brightness temperatures of pulsars at radio frequencies imply that the radiation at these frequencies must be produced by some type of coherent emission mechanism. Chiu and Canuto (ref. 1 and unpublished work) have proposed that such emission is due to a modified bremsstrahlung mechanism which may take place in the very strong-magnetic fields expected to be associated with neutron stars. They have argued that oscillations of the neutron star may cause a population inversion of the radiating electrons, thus possibly giving rise to coherent radiation. The purpose of this communication is to point out that their modified bremsstrahlung mechanism cannot, for any electron distribution, lead to coherent radiation.
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References
Chiu, H. Y., and Canuto, V., Phys. Rev. Lett., 22, 415 (1969).
Wild, J. P., Smerd, S. F., and Weiss, A. A., Ann. Rev. Astron. Astrophys., 1 (1963).
Bekefi, G., Radiation Processes in Plasmas (Wiley, NY, 1966).
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SIMON, M., STRANGE, D. Bremsstrahlung Radiation in Intense Magnetic Fields. Nature 224, 49–50 (1969). https://doi.org/10.1038/224049b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/224049b0
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