Radio pulsar disk electrodynamics
We outline the macroscopic physics of a disk close to an isolated, magnetized, rotating neutron star. It seems likely that such systems are formed from time to time in the universe. The neutron star acts as a Faraday disk dynamo, and the disk acts as both a load and a neutral sheet, permitting the polar cap current to return to the neutron star and also splitting a dipolar magnetic field into two monopolar halves. Michel and Dessler have proposed that such systems are radio pulsars. The dominant energy loss is from the stellar wind torque (giving a deceleration index n = 7/3), and the next contribution is dissipation in the ''auroral'' zones, where the current returns to the star in a sheet about 5 cm thick. The latter is comparable to the observed radio luminosities and is in reasonable accord with the data. The disk itself may be a source of visible radiation comparable to that in pulsed radiofrequency emission. As the pulsar ages, the disk expands and narrows into a ring, the plausible consequence of which could be cessation of pulsed emission at periods of a few seconds.
- Research Organization:
- Department of Space Physics and Astronomy, Rice University
- OSTI ID:
- 6269686
- Journal Information:
- Astrophys. J.; (United States), Vol. 266:1
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
GENERAL PHYSICS
NEUTRON STARS
ELECTRODYNAMICS
ROTATION
STAR MODELS
PULSARS
COSMIC RADIO SOURCES
MAGNETIC FIELDS
MAGNETIC STARS
RADIOWAVE RADIATION
STAR ACCRETION
STELLAR RADIATION
STELLAR WINDS
ELECTROMAGNETIC RADIATION
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
MOTION
RADIATIONS
STAR EVOLUTION
STARS
640102* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Stars & Quasi-Stellar
Radio & X-Ray Sources