A Model for 'Double Notches' in Radio Pulsar Profiles

Abstract

Aberration and retardation of the radiation within a pulsar's magnetosphere enable a single corotating absorbing region in the outer magnetosphere to give rise to a 'double notch' in the pulsar's observed radio profile. This effect requires that a pulsar has not only absorbing but also emitting regions at heights which are a substantial proportion of the light cylinder radius. The known presence of double notches in the weak secondary emission of three nearby pulsars suggests that this emission comes from open field lines well above their poles and that an obscuring region extending over no more than 5 percent of the light cylinder radius is located at or near the light cylinder.

arXiv comment10 pages, 4 figures, Published in MNRAS. See also astro-ph/0311467

References in corpus (8)

• Two-Pole Caustic Model for High-Energy Lightcurves of Pulsars
• Emission Beam Geometry of Selected Pulsars Derived from Average Pulse Polarization Data
• Extended Acceleration in Slot Gaps and Pulsar High-Energy Emission
• Enhanced Optical Emission During Crab Giant Radio Pulses
• X-ray Radiation from the Millisecond Pulsar J0437-4715
• Understanding the radio emission geometry of multi-component radio pulsars from retardation and aberration effects
• An Empirical Model for the Radio Emission from Pulsars
• HST Proper Motion confirms the optical identification of the nearby pulsar PSR 1929+10

Cited by in corpus (6)

• The nature of pulsar radio emission
• A broadband radio study of the average profile and giant pulses from PSR B1821-24A
• Pulsar shadow as the origin of double notches in radio pulse profiles
• Asymmetry of bifurcated features in radio pulsar profiles
• A model for double notches and bifurcated components in radio profiles of pulsars and magnetars - Evidence for the parallel acceleration maser in pulsar magnetosphere
• A model for distortions of polarisation-angle curves in radio pulsars