Excitation of Alfven Waves and Pulsar Radio Emission

Abstract

We analyze mechanisms of the excitation of Alfvén wave in pulsar magnetospheres as a possible source of pulsar radio emission generation. We find that Cherenkov excitation of obliquely propagating Alfvén waves is inefficient, while excitation at the anomalous cyclotron resonance by the particles from the primary beam and from the tail of the bulk distribution function may have a considerable growth rate. The cyclotron instability on Alfvén waves occurs in the kinetic regime still not very closed to the star: $r\ge 50R_{NS}$. We also discuss various mechanisms of conversion of Alfvén waves into escaping radiation. Unfortunately, no decisive conclusion about the effectiveness of such conversion can be made.

12 pages, 2 postscipt figures. submitted to MNRAS

References in corpus (4)

• On the Nature of Pulsar Radio Emission
• Cherenkov-Curvature Radiation and Pulsar Radio Emission Generation
• Size of the Vela Pulsar's Radio Emission Region: 500 km
• Beam Instabilities in Magnetized Pair Plasma

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• Wave dispersion in pulsar plasma: 1. Plasma rest frame
• Wave dispersion in pulsar plasma: 3. Beam-driven instabilities
• Radio Emission of Pulsars. II. Coherence Catalyzed by Cerenkov-Unstable Shear Alfvén Waves
• Pulsar radio emission mechanism I : On the amplification of Langmuir waves in the linear regime