The models for radio emission from pulsars–The outstanding issues

The theory of pulsar radio emission is reviewed critically, emphasizing reasons why there is no single, widely-accepted emission mechanism. The uncertainties in our understanding of how the magnetosphere is populated with plasma preclude predicting the properties of the emission from first principles. Some important observational features are incorporated into virtually all the proposed emission mechanisms, and other observational features are either controversial or fail to provide criteria that clearly favor one mechanism over others. It is suggested that the criterion that the emission mechanism apply to millisecond, fast young, and slow pulsars implies that it is insensitive to the magnetic field strength. It is argued that coherent emission processes in all astrophysical and space plasmas consist of emission from many localized, transient subsources, that any theory requires both an emission mechanism and a statistical theory for the subsource, and, that this aspect of coherent emission has been largely ignored in treatments of pulsar radio emission. Several specific proposed emission mechanisms are discussed critically: coherent curvature emission by bunches, relativistic plasma emission, maser curvature emission, cyclotron instability and free electron maser emission. It is suggested that some form of relativistic plasma emission is the most plausible candidate although one form of maser curvature emission and free electron maser emission are not ruled out. Propagation effects are discussed, emphasizing the interpretation of jumps between orthogonal polarizations.     

Theory of the radio emission of pulsars

A consistent theory of excitation, stabilization, and propagation of electromagnetic oscillations in a relativistic one-dimensional electron-positron plasma flowing along curved magnetic field lines is presented. It is shown that in such a medium which is typical of the magnetosphere of a neutron star there exist unstable natural modes of oscillations. Nonlinear saturation of the instability leads to an effective energy conversion into transverse oscillations capable of leaving the magnetosphere of a pulsar. The polarization spectrum and the directivity pattern of generated radiation are determined. A comparison with observations has shown that the theory makes it possible to explain practically all the basic characteristics of observed pulsar radio emission.     

The nature of radio emission from pulsars

It is shown that radio emission from pulsars is unlikely to be of coherent synchrotron origin if the surface magnetic field of the central neutron star is greater than 10⁸ G.     

A possible radio emission mechanism for pulsars

The magnetic field in the neutron-proton-electron (npe) layer of a neutron star is caused by quasi-stationary vortex current of superconducting and normal protons relative to the normal electrons. The same current generates the radio emission due to the Josephson effect. The radiation propagates in the magnetically-active medium and goes out the crust through the cracks to the magnetosphere (npe-layer is optically thick layer). As a result the hot radiospots on the star surface develop and a resulting polarized radiation pattern near the magnetic poles is formed. The cross-section of this radiation pattern gives the observed pulse structure of the pulsar. The variations of quasi-stationary vortex current can result in the amplitude-frequency variations of the radiation spectrum due to specific properties of the radiation mechanism. From this we have the variations of the fine spectrum structure, pulse amplitude and pulse structure and the correlation of them with the spectral index variations of pulsars in this model.     

Spectral indices for radio emission of 228 pulsars

We determine spectral indices of 228 pulsars by using Parkes pulsar data observed at 1.4 GHz,among which 200 spectra are newly determined.The indices are distributed in the range from-4.84 to-0.46.Together with known pulsar spectra from literature,we tried to find clues to the pulsar emission process.The weak correlations between the spectral index,the spin-down energy loss rate E and the potential drop in the polar gap △Ψ hint that emission properties are related to the particle acceleration process in a pulsar's magnetosphere.     

High-frequency cutoff and change of radio emission mechanism in pulsars

Pulsars are fast rotating neutron stars with a strong magnetic field, that emit over a wide frequency range. In spite of all efforts during the 40 years after the discovery of pulsars, the mechanism of their radio emission so far remains unknown. We propose a new approach to solving this problem for a subset of pulsars with a high-frequency cutoff of the spectrum from the Pushchino catalogue (the “Pushchino” sample). We provide a theoretical explanation of the observed dependence of the high-frequency cutoff on the pulsar period, and we predict the dependence of the cutoff position from the magnetic field. This explanation is based on a new mechanism for electron radio emission in pulsars. Namely, radiation occurs in the inner (polar) gap, when electrons are accelerated in the electric field that is increasing from zero level at the star surface. In this case the acceleration of electrons passes through a maximum and goes to zero when the electron velocity approaches the speed of light. All the radiated power is located within the radio frequency band. The averaging of radiation intensity over the polar cap, with some natural assumptions of the coherence of the radiation, leads to the observed spectra. It also leads to an acceptable estimate of the power of radio emission.     

On the mechanism of X-ray emission from radio pulsars

We discuss the correlations between the luminosities of radio pulsars in various frequency ranges and the magnetic fields on the light cylinder. These correlations suggest that the observed emission is generated in outer layers of the pulsar magnetospheres by the synchrotron mechanism. To calculate the distribution functions of the relativistic particles in the generation region, we use a model of quasilinear interactions between the waves excited by cyclotron instability and particles of the primary beam and the secondary electron—positron plasma. We derive a formula for calculating the X-ray luminosity L _x of radio pulsars. A strong correlation was found between L _x and the parameter \(\dot P_{ - 15} /P^{3.5}\), where P is the neutron-star rotation period, in close agreement with this formula. The latter makes it possible to predict the detection of X-ray emission from more than a hundred (114) known radio pulsars. We show that the Lorentz factors of the secondary particles are small (γ _p = 1.5–8.5), implying that the magnetic field near the neutron-star surface in these objects is multipolar. It follows from our model that almost all of the millisecond pulsars must emit X-ray synchrotron radiation. This conclusion differs from predictions of other models and can be used to test the theory under consideration. The list of potential X-ray radiators presented here can be used to search for X-ray sources with existing instruments.     

New mechanism of radio emission of pulsars. II

Byurakan Astrophysical Observatory. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 31, No. 1, pp. 101–110, July–August, 1989.     

Weakly radiating radio pulsars

We analyze the statistical distribution of weakly radiating pulsars, i.e., radio pulsars that have passed to the stage of an orthogonal rotator during the evolution of the inclination angle X. We discuss in detail the factors that lead to a significant reduction in the energy losses for this class of objects. We have determined the number of weakly radiating radio pulsars and their distribution in spin period P. The predictions of a theory based on the model of current losses are shown to be consistent with observational data.     

High-energy emission from millisecond pulsars: polar cap models

The viability of polar cap models for high-energy emission from millisecond pulsars is discussed. It is shown that in millisecond pulsars, polar gap acceleration along the last open field lines is radiation-reaction limited, that is, the maximum energy to which particles can be accelerated is determined by balancing the energy-loss rate (due to curvature radiation) with the gap-acceleration rate. The maximum Lorentz factor is limited by curvature radiation and is not sensitive to the specific acceleration model. However, the distance (from the polar cap) at which the Lorentz factor achieves the limit is model dependent, and can be between one-hundredth (for the vacuum gap) and above one-tenth (for the space-charge limited gap) of a stellar radius distant from the polar cap for a pulsar period P =2 ms and a surface magnetic field B =7.510⁴ T. Because of the radiation reaction constraint and the relatively weak magnetic field, both the expected multiplicity (number of pairs per primary particle) and the Lorentz factor of the outflowing one-dimensional magnetospheric e^± plasma from the polar gap are considerably lower than those for normal pulsars. Assuming space-charge limited flow, the location of the pair production front (PPF) is estimated to occur at about one stellar radius above the polar cap, which is significantly higher than that for normal pulsars. If the observed X-ray emission originates in the region near or above the PPF, the wide hollow-cone can reproduce the observed wide double-peaked feature of the light curves without using the aligned rotator assumption.     

Coherent synchrotron emission observed: implications for radio astronomy

Synchrotron radiation by relativistic electrons spiralling in magnetic fields is a mainstay of radio astronomy, accounting for emissions from many objects. Conventional models assume that electrons radiate singly, so power scales with number of electrons. Yet recently jets from active galactic nuclei have shown very high luminosity, inconsistent with plausible single-particle synchrotron emission. We report experiments showing that, by stimulating plasma instabilities with relativistic electron beams, one can induce increases in the synchrotron emission by factors of ∼10⁶. Enhancement presumably arises from coherent bunching of the relativistic electrons as they spiral in an ambient magnetic field. Polarization measurements suggest that electrons radiatively cooperate on scales of ∼6.6 cm. Radio telescope Stokes parameters may be able to reveal such polarization effects in high-brightness sources, a new observing diagnostic.     

Morphology and characteristics of radio pulsars

This review describes the observational properties of radio pulsars, fast rotating neutron stars, emitting radio waves. After the introduction we give a list of milestones in pulsar research. The following chapters concentrate on pulsar morphology: the characteristic pulsar parameters such as pulse shape, pulsar spectrum, polarization and time dependence. We give information on the evolution of pulsars with frequency since this has a direct connection with the emission heights, as postulated in the radius to frequency mapping (RFM) concept. We deal successively with the properties of normal (slow) pulsars and of millisecond (fast-recycled) pulsars. The final chapters give the distribution characteristics of the presently catalogued 1300 objects.Received: 5 December 2003, Published online: 15 April 2004 Correspondence to: Richard Wielebinski     

Statistics of extinct radio pulsars

We study the statistical distribution of extinct radio pulsars at the stage of an ejector. An important element that distinguishes our study from other works is a consistent allowance for the evolution of the angle of inclination of the magnetic axis to the spin axis. We determined the distribution of extinct radio pulsars in spin period for two models: the model with hindered particle escape from the neutron-star surface and the model with free particle escape. The total number of extinct radio pulsars is shown to be much smaller than that in the model in which the evolution of the angle of axial inclination is disregarded. This is because when the evolution of the angle of axial inclination is taken into account, the transition to the stage of a propeller occurs at much shorter neutron-star spin periods (P ～ 5–10 s) than assumed previously.