2008/02/12 by Andrei Gruzinov, Gruzinov, Andrei
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum and Classical Electrodynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.0802.1716
openalex publication_date 2008/02/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Strong-Field Electrodynamics (SFE) is Maxwell theory with a certain Lorentz-covariant Ohm's law which uses only the electromagnetic degrees of freedom. We show that SFE is \it semi-dissipative: while the dissipation rate of the electromagnetic energy is non-negative, it can be exactly zero for non-trivial electromagnetic fields. It appears that SFE is well-defined for arbitrary electromagnetic fields. It should be possible to calculate the dissipative pulsar magnetosphere and resolve the magnetic separatrix using SFE. We show that SFE reduces to Force-Free Electrodynamics (FFE) in the large conductivity limit. In the regions where the ideal FFE 4-current is space-like, SFE predicts small dissipative corrections. In the regions where the ideal FFE 4-current is time-like, SFE predicts a zero correction. This indicates that bright pulsars radiate primarily from the magnetic separatrix.