Nonlinear Drift–Alfvén Waves in Relativistically Hot Multicomponent Plasmas and Their Relevance to the Fine Structure of Pulsar Radioemissions

A set of equations which governs the nonlinear dynamics of drift–Alfvén waves in an inhomogeneous relativistic electron-positron plasma with a small admixture of heavy ions is derived. It is shown that these equations admit a stationary solution in the form of a two-scale dipolar vortex. The conditions for the existence of such structures are discussed. It is shown that the presence of heavy ions in are lativistic electron-positron plasma significantly reinforces the spatial localization of the solitary waves which results in the appearance of exponentially localized vortex structures. It is also shown that the small scale micropulse structure of radio pulsar radiation (e.g., in the case of the pulsar PSR 0905+08) can be interpreted as a signature of the vortex structure in the outer region of the pulsar polar magnetosphere. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.