On the force‐free magnetosphere of an aligned rotator

By A. N. Timokhin. 2005

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We investigate in detail the properties of the stationary force-free magnetosphere of an aligned rotator assuming the last closed field line is lying in the equatorial plane at large distances from pulsar. The pulsar equation is solved numerically using a multigrid code with high numerical resolution, and physical properties of the magnetosphere are obtained with high accuracy. We found a set of solutions with different sizes of the closed magnetic field line zone and verify the applicability of the force-free approximation. We discuss the role of electron-positron cascades in supporting the force-free magnetosphere and argue that the closed field line zone should grow with time at a slower rate than the light cylinder. This yields a pulsar breaking index of less than 3. It is shown that models of an aligned rotator magnetosphere with a widely accepted configuration of the magnetic field, such as the one considered in this paper, have serious difficulties. We discuss the solutions of this problem and argue that in any case pulsar energy losses should evolve with time differently than is predicted by the magnetodipolar formula.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Geophysics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e27ff4eb9b022804aa7887573aa81827750d8e36

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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): “The 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…”
Time-dependent 3D magnetohydrodynamic pulsar magnetospheres: oblique rotators (2012, background): “In recent years, self-consistent force-free solutions of axisymmetric (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…”
ASYMPTOTIC STRUCTURE OF POYNTING-DOMINATED JETS (2009, background): “The condition of regularity at this surface enables one to fix the poloidal current I (Ψ) (e.g., Fendt 1997; Contopoulos et al. 1999; Uzdensky 2004, 2005; Lovelace et al. 2006; Timokhin 2006).”
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): “The rest of the energy goes into synchrotron radiation; that energy is carried by many photons with energies much less than that of the primary photon. charged particles from the magnetosphere [the latter mechanism of current adjustment has been discussed in Lyubarskij (1992) and Timokhin (2006)].”
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).”
TOWARD A REALISTIC PULSAR MAGNETOSPHERE (2011, background): “The axisymmetric solution has since been confirmed and further studied by several others (Gruzinov 2005; Timokhin 2006; Komissarov 2006; McKinney 2006), in particular with respect to its properties near the Y-point (the intersection of the last closed field line and the LC; Uzdensky 2003).”
MODELING OF GAMMA-RAY PULSAR LIGHT CURVES USING THE FORCE-FREE MAGNETIC FIELD (2009, methodology): “The structure of the FF magnetosphere differs substantially from the rotating dipole field due to the poloidal current and the returning current sheet (Contopoulos et al. 1999; Gruzinov 2005; Komissarov 2006; McKinney 2006; Timokhin 2006).”
Three-dimensional numerical simulations of the pulsar magnetosphere: preliminary results (2008, result): “11 of Timokhin 2006; and Fig.”