On the primary beam deceleration in the pulsar wind

Abstract

We investigate the motion of the primary beam outside the light cylinder in the pulsar wind. Inside the light cylinder both primary and secondary plasma move along dipole magnetic field lines where their energies can be arbitrary. But at larger distances the theory predicts quasi-radial motion with the velocity exactly corresponding to the drift velocity which cannot be the same for primary and secondary plasma. Hence, the deceleration of the primary beam is to take place simultaneously resulting in the acceleration of the secondary plasma. We investigate this process in the three-fluid MHD approximation and demonstrate that for most pulsars the energy of the beam remains practically unchanged. Only for young radio pulsars (Crab, Vela) essential deceleration up to the energy of the secondary plasma takes place outside the fast magnetosonic surface $r_{\mathrm{F}}\sim (10$-$100)R_{\mathrm{L}}$, the energy of secondary plasma itself increasing insufficiently.

7 pages, 3 figures, MNRAS, submitted, uses mn2e.cls

References in corpus (11)

• Time-dependent force-free pulsar magnetospheres: axisymmetric and oblique rotators
• The Axisymmetric Pulsar Magnetosphere
• Current Flow and Pair Creation at Low Altitude in Rotation Powered Pulsars' Force-Free Magnetospheres: Space-Charge Limited Flow
• Ab-initio pulsar magnetosphere: three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of axisymmetric pulsars
• Time-Dependent 3D Magnetohydrodynamic Pulsar Magnetospheres: Oblique Rotators
• Condensed Surfaces of Magnetic Neutron Stars, Thermal Surface Emission, and Particle Acceleration Above Pulsar Polar Caps
• Acceleration and collimation of relativistic plasmas ejected by fast rotators
• Electron-Positron Plasma Generation in a Magnetar Magnetosphere
• On the particle acceleration near the light surface of radio pulsars
• Radiation drag effects on magnetically dominated outflows around compact objects
• Axisymmetric force-free magnetosphere of a pulsar. II. Transition from the self-consistent two-fluid model

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Radio pulsars: already fifty years!
• Particle acceleration and radiation reaction in strong spherical electromagnetic waves
• First Adiabatic Invariant and the Brightness Temperature of Relativistic Jets
• On the internal structure of the current sheet in the pulsar wind