Three-dimensional numerical simulations of the pulsar magnetosphere: preliminary results

By C. Kalapotharakos, I. Contopoulos. 2008

137 citations recorded by the source corpus.

We investigate the three-dimensional structure of the pulsar magnetosphere through time-dependent numerical simulations of a magnetic dipole that is set in rotation. We developed our own Eulerian finite difference time domain numerical solver of force-free electrodynamics and implemented the technique of non-reflecting and absorbing outer boundaries. This allows us to run our simulations for many stellar rotations, and thus claim with confidence that we have reached a steady state. A quasi-stationary corotating pattern is established, in agreement with previous numerical solutions. We discuss the prospects of our code for future high-resolution investigations of dissipation, particle acceleration, and temporal variability.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0dd65fce422c50de3a87a4f57f3015a3720d6866

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

In Geophysics

Citations in the corpus

Current flow and pair creation at low altitude in rotation-powered pulsars’ force-free magnetospheres: space charge limited flow (2012, methodology): “…advent of quantitative solutions for the structure of the forcefree model (e.g. Contopoulos, Kazanas & Fendt 1999; Timokhin 2006; Spitkovsky 2006; Kalapotharakos & Contopoulos 2009; Bai & Spitkovsky 2010) has provided, for the first time, a theory of the current flow expected as a function of…”
MODELING OF GAMMA-RAY PULSAR LIGHT CURVES USING THE FORCE-FREE MAGNETIC FIELD (2009, background): “Evolving for longer times makes little difference to the field structure (Kalapotharakos & Contopoulos 2009).”
Time-dependent pair cascades in magnetospheres of neutron stars - I. Dynamics of the polar cap cascade with no particle supply from the neutron star surface (2010, methodology): “Recently the force-free pulsar magnetosphere model has been studied in great detail (e.g. Contopoulos, Kazanas & Fendt 1999; Gruzinov 2005; Timokhin 2006, 2007a; Spitkovsky 2006; Kalapotharakos & Contopoulos 2009; Bai & Spitkovsky 2010).”
Time-dependent 3D magnetohydrodynamic pulsar magnetospheres: oblique rotators (2012, methodology): “…(Contopoulos, Kazanas & Fendt 1999; Gruzinov 2005; McKinney 2006b; Timokhin 2006; Parfrey, Beloborodov & Hui 2012) and oblique (Spitkovsky 2006, S06 hereafter; Kalapotharakos & Contopoulos 2009; Li, Spitkovsky & Tchekhovskoy 2012b; Pétri 2012a) pulsar magnetospheres were numerically obtained.”
TOWARD A REALISTIC PULSAR MAGNETOSPHERE (2011, methodology): “Outside this area we implemented a PML layer that allows us to follow the evolution of the magnetosphere for several stellar rotations (Kalapotharakos & Contopoulos 2009).”
Particle acceleration in axisymmetric pulsar current sheets (2014, methodology): “…the numerical modeling of pulsar magnetospheres, mostly in the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) limit (force-free, resistive force-free, and full MHD, see e.g., Contopoulos et al. 1999; Gruzinov 2005; Komissarov 2006; Spitkovsky 2006; McKinney 2006; Timokhin 2006; Kalapotharakos & Contopoulos 2009; Bai ?”
Pulsar Wind Nebulae as Cosmic Pevatrons: A Current Sheet’s Tale (2012, background): “…analytically minded theorists to guess the detailed answer uniformly failed over 30 years of trying), first for the aligned rotator (Contopoulos et al. 1999; Gruzinov 2005; Komissarov 2006; Timokhin 2006), then for the full 3D oblique rotator (Spitkovsky 2006; Kalapotharakos and Contopoulos 2009).”