On the mystery of the interpulse shift in the Crab pulsar

Abstract

A new mechanism of radiation emission in the polar gap of a pulsar is proposed. It is the curvature radiation which is emitted by returning positrons moving toward the surface of the neutron star along field lines of the inclined magnetic field and reflects from the surface. Such radiation interferes with transition radiation emitted from the neutron star when positrons hit the surface. It is shown that the proposed mechanism may be applicable for explanation of the mystery of the interpulse shift in the Crab pulsar at high frequencies discovered by Moffett and Hankins twenty years ago.

arXiv comment15 pages, 8 figures; comparing to version 1, the abstract and the list of references are slightly modified, as well as the references in the captions of Fig.3,4,6 and denominations in formulae (12-14); the paper is accepted for publication in JPSA, Vol.7, no. 4, 2017