Radio efficiency of pulsars

Abstract

We investigate radio emission efficiency $\xi$ of pulsars and report a near linear inverse correlation between $\xi$ and the spindown power $\dot{E}$, as well as a near linear correlation between $\xi$ and pulsar age $\tau$. This is a consequence of very weak, if any, dependences of radio luminosity $L$ on pulsar period $P$ and period derivative $\dot{P}$, in contrast to X-ray or $\gamma$-ray emission luminosities. The analysis of radio fluxes suggests that these correlations are not due to a selection effect, but are intrinsic to the pulsar radio emission physics. We have found that, although with a large variance, the radio luminosity of pulsars is $⟨L⟩\approx 10^{29}erg/s$, regardless of the position in the $P-\dot{P}$ diagram. Within such a picture, a model-independent statement can be made that the death line of radio pulsars corresponds to an upper limit in the efficiency of radio emission. If we introduce the maximum value for a radio efficiency into Monte Carlo-based population syntheses we can reproduce the observed sample using the random luminosity model. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test on a synthetic flux distribution shows high probability of reproducing the observed distribution. Our results suggests that the plasma responsible for generating radio emission is produced under similar conditions regardless of pulsar age, dipolar magnetic field strength, and spin-down rate. The magnetic fields near the pulsar surface are likely dominated by crust-anchored magnetic anomalies, which do not significantly differ among pulsars, leading to similar conditions for generating electron-positron pairs necessary to power radio emission.

10 pages, 8 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (4)

• XMM-Newton Observations of Radio Pulsars B0834+06 and B0826-34 and Implications for Pulsar Inner Accelerator
• XMM-Newton observation of the drifting pulsar B0943+10
• Detection of X-ray Emission from the Very Old Pulsar J0108-1431
• Radio pulsar activity and the crustal Hall drift

Cited by in corpus (55)

• A Living Theory Catalogue for Fast Radio Bursts
• The Physics of Fast Radio Bursts
• A radio transient with unusually slow periodic emission
• Microarcsecond VLBI pulsar astrometry with PSR$\pi$ II. parallax distances for 57 pulsars
• LOFAR discovery of a 23.5-second radio pulsar
• Population synthesis of isolated Neutron Stars with magneto--rotational evolution
• TeV Halos are Everywhere: Prospects for New Discoveries
• Fast Radio Bursts and Radio Transients from Black Hole Batteries
• Radio pulsars: already fifty years!
• Modelling Neutron Star-Black Hole Binaries: Future Pulsar Surveys and Gravitational Wave Detectors
• Modelling Double Neutron Stars: Radio and Gravitational Waves
• Two Modes of Partially Screened Gap
• Maximum mass cutoff in the neutron star mass distribution and the prospect of forming supramassive objects in the double neutron star mergers
• The Thousand-Pulsar-Array program on MeerKAT -- IX. The time-averaged properties of the observed pulsar population
• The 30-Year Search for the Compact Object in SN 1987A
• Multi-wavelength afterglows of fast radio bursts
• Post fall-back evolution of multipolar magnetic fields and radio pulsar activation
• Sporadic radio pulses from a white dwarf binary at the orbital period
• The emission of interpulses by a 6.45-hour period coherent radio transient
• Synthesizing the intrinsic FRB population using frbpoppy
• A Single spark model for PSR J2144$-$3933
• GLEAM-X J16279.5-523504.3 as a White Dwarf Pulsar
• A Blind Search for Prompt Gamma-ray Counterparts of Fast Radio Bursts with Fermi-LAT Data
• Constraining a neutron star merger origin for localized fast radio bursts
• Evolutionary implications of a magnetar interpretation for GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3
• Radio Pulsar Beam Geometry at Lower Frequencies: Bright Sources Outside the Arecibo Sky
• Millisecond Pulsars Modify the Radio-SFR Correlation in Quiescent Galaxies
• Discussions on the nature of GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3
• Electric field screening in pair discharges and generation of pulsar radio emission
• On the Origin of Radio Emission from Magnetars
• Luminosity of radio pulsar and its new emission death line
• The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT VII: Polarisation properties of pulsars in the Magellanic Clouds
• Discovery of a Pulsar Wind Nebula around B0950+08 with the ELWA
• Periodic Fast Radio Bursts from Young Neutron Stars
• A Toy Model for the Electromagnetic Output of Neutron-star Merger Prompt Collapse to a Black Hole: Magnetized Neutron-star Collisions
• Science Using Single-Pulse Exploration with Combined Telescopes. I. The mode switching, flaring, and single-pulse morphology of PSR B1822-09
• TRAPUM search for pulsars in supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae -- I. Survey description and initial discoveries
• Ion-proton pulsars
• Confronting the neutron star population with inverse cascades
• Constraints on Pulsed Emission Model for Repeating FRB 121102
• Radio Emission of Pulsars. II. Coherence Catalyzed by Cerenkov-Unstable Shear Alfvén Waves
• A multi-component Langmuir-mode source for the observed pulsar coherent emission
• Electric Field Screening with Back-Flow at Pulsar Polar Cap
• The mechanism of coherent radio emission in some classes of pulsar
• TRAPUM upper limits on pulsed radio emission for SMC X-ray pulsar J0058-7218
• A blazar candidate for the Fermi source 4FGL J1848.7-0129
• Search for Dyson rings around pulsars: unexpected light curves
• Event Rate of Fast Radio Burst from Binary Neutron-star Mergers
• Searching for Pulsars, Magnetars, and Fast Radio Bursts in the Sculptor Galaxy using MeerKAT
• Pulsar Population Synthesis with Magnetorotational Evolution: Constraining the Decay of Magnetic field
• A Search for Low-frequency Radio Pulses from Long Gamma-ray Bursts with the Murchison Widefield Array
• The TRAPUM Small Magellanic Cloud pulsar survey with MeerKAT -- II. Nine new radio timing solutions and glitches from young pulsars
• Initial periods and magnetic fields of neutron stars
• Radio luminosity of GLEAM-X J162759.5-523504.3: does it really exceed the spin-down power of the pulsar?
• HAWC J0630+186 Could Not Be Powered by PSR J0630+19