On the origin of the drifting subpulses in radio pulsars

Abstract

A model for the main observational characteristics of the radio emission of pulsars with well organized drifting subpulses is presented. We propose that drifting subpulses result from the modulation of the radio emission mechanism due to long-wavelength drift waves in the magnetosphere. The drift waves are generated at shorter wavelengths, and their nonlinear evolution favours accumulation in a specific azimuthal eigenmode with an integral number, $m$, of nodes encircling the magnetic pole. The electric field of the drift waves is along the magnetic field lines, and this modulates the distribution for particles and hence the radio emission mechanism. The ratio of the frequency of the eigenmode to the rotation frequency of the star is insensitive to the magnetic field strength and the period of rotation, and is of order unity. The period, $P_3$, of the drifting subpulses is attributed to the mismatch between this frequency and the nearest harmonic of the rotation frequency of the star.

arXiv comment6 pages, accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (12)

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Cited by in corpus (10)

• PSR J1926-0652: A Pulsar with Interesting Emission Properties Discovered at FAST
• The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT -- VIII. The subpulse modulation of 1198 pulsars
• Formation of a Partially-Screened Inner Acceleration Region in Radio Pulsars: Drifting Subpulses and Thermal X-Ray Emission from Polar Cap Surface
• A Pulsational Model for the Orthogonal Polarization Modes in Radio Pulsars
• On the nature of radio pulsars with long periods
• Variations of $P_2$ in subpulse drifting pulsars
• Explaining the subpulse drift velocity of pulsar magnetosphere within the space-charge limited flow model
• PSR J0026-1955: A curious case of evolutionary subpulse drifting and nulling
• Testing the circularity of PSR B0818-41's carousel
• Properties of the emission region in pulsars with opposite subpulse drift directions in different profile components