Does a strong particle accelerator arise very close to the light cylinder in a pulsar magnetosphere?

Abstract

We examine if an efficient particle acceleration takes place by a magnetic-field-aligned electric field near the light cylinder in a rotating neutron star magnetosphere. Constructing the electric current density with the actual motion of collision-less plasmas, we express the rotationally induced, Goldreich-Julian charge density as a function of position. It is demonstrated that the 'light cylinder gap', which emits very high energy photons via curvature process by virtue of a strong magnetic-field-aligned electric field very close to the light cylinder, will not arise in an actual pulsar magnetosphere.

arXiv comment3 pages, 1 figure; Monthly Notices of Royal Astronomical Society Letters in press

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• First Ground-based Measurement of Sub-20 GeV to 100 GeV $\gamma$-rays from the Vela Pulsar with H.E.S.S. II
• Three-dimensional non-vacuum pulsar outer-gap model: Localized acceleration electric field in the higher altitudes
• Magnetocentrifugal acceleration of bulk motion of plasma in pulsar magnetosphere
• Pulsed VHE emission from the Crab Pulsar in the context of magnetocentrifugal particle acceleration
• Two-fluid model of the pulsar magnetosphere represented as an axisymmetric force-free dipole