On the internal structure of the current sheet in the pulsar wind

Abstract

We investigate the internal structure of the current sheet in the pulsar wind within force-free and two-fluid MHD approximations. Within the force-free approximation we obtain general asymptotic solution of the Grad-Shafranov equation for quasi-spherical pulsar wind up to the second order in small parameter $\epsilon =(\Omega r/c{)}^{-1}$. The solution allows an arbitrary latitudinal structure of the radial magnetic field, including that obtained in the numerical simulations of oblique rotators. It is also shown that the shape of the current sheet does not depend on the latitudinal structure. For the internal region of the current sheet outside the fast magnetosonic surface where the force-free approximation is not valid we use two-fluid MHD approximation. Carrying out calculations in the comoving reference frame we succeed in determining intrinsic electric and magnetic fields of a sheet. It allows us to analyze time-dependent effects which were not investigated up to now. In particular, we estimate the efficiency of the particle acceleration inside the sheet. Finally, after investigating the motion of individual particles in the time-dependent current sheet, we find self-consistently the width of the sheet and its time evolution.

arXiv comment12 pages, 7 figures, accepted by MNRAS

References in corpus (27)

• Time-dependent force-free pulsar magnetospheres: axisymmetric and oblique rotators
• The Axisymmetric Pulsar Magnetosphere
• Reconnection in a striped pulsar wind
• Primary particle acceleration above 100 TeV in the shell-type Supernova Remnant RX J1713.7-3946 with deep H.E.S.S. observations
• On the force-free magnetosphere of aligned rotator
• Current Flow and Pair Creation at Low Altitude in Rotation Powered Pulsars' Force-Free Magnetospheres: Space-Charge Limited Flow
• Particle Acceleration and Magnetic Dissipation in Relativistic Current Sheet of Pair Plasmas
• Efficiency of Magnetic to Kinetic Energy Conversion in a Monopole Magnetosphere
• Simulations of Axisymmetric Magnetospheres of Neutron Stars
• Ab-initio pulsar magnetosphere: three-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations of oblique pulsars
• Particle acceleration in axisymmetric pulsar current sheets
• The Power of Axisymmetric Pulsar
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae as Cosmic Pevatrons: A Current Sheet's Tale
• Time-Dependent 3D Magnetohydrodynamic Pulsar Magnetospheres: Oblique Rotators
• Relativistic MHD Winds from Rotating Neutron Stars
• The origin of peculiar jet-torus structure in the Crab nebula
• On the magnetic acceleration and collimation of astrophysical outflows
• Three-dimensional Analytical Description of Magnetised Winds from Oblique Pulsars
• The Extended Pulsar Magnetosphere
• Electromagnetic power of merging and collapsing compact objects
• A new standard pulsar magnetosphere
• The Crab Nebula: interpretation of CHANDRA observations
• On the particle acceleration near the light surface of radio pulsars
• Phase-resolved polarization properties of the pulsar striped wind synchrotron emission
• Radiation drag effects on magnetically dominated outflows around compact objects
• Reconnection in pulsar winds
• On the primary beam deceleration in the pulsar wind