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The equatorial current sheet and other interesting features of the pulsar magnetosphere

Part of: Plasma Physics of Gamma Ray Emission Focus on Plasma Astrophysics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 May 2016

Ioannis Contopoulos
Ioannis Contopoulos*
Affiliation:
Research Center for Astronomy and Applied Mathematics, Academy of Athens, 4 Soranou Efessiou Str., Athens 11527, Greece National Research Nuclear University, 31 Kashirskoe Highway, Moscow 115409, Russia
*
†Email address for correspondence: icontop@academyofathens.gr
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Abstract

We want to understand what drives magnetospheric dissipation in the equatorial current sheet. Numerical simulations have limitations and, unless we have a clear a priori understanding of the physical processes involved, their results can be misleading. We argue that the canonical pulsar magnetosphere is strongly dissipative and that a large fraction (up to 30–40 % in an aligned rotator) of the spindown luminosity is redirected towards the equator where it is dissipated into particle acceleration and emission of radiation. We show that this is due to the failure of the equatorial electric current to cross the Y-point at the tip of the corotating zone.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Plasma Physics , Volume 82 , Issue 3 , June 2016 , 635820303
Copyright
© Cambridge University Press 2016 

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