2010/08/23 by Zhu-Xing Liang, Yi Liang, Liang, Zhu-Xing +1
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Classical Physics (physics.class-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Sensor Technology #Plasma Physics (physics.plasm-ph) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Superconducting Materials and Applications #astro-ph.SR #physics.class-ph #physics.plasm-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1008.3764
7 pages, 7 figures,
arxiv created 2010/08/23 · openalex publication_date 2010/08/23 · arxiv updated 2010/08/27 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In the paper Pulsar Electrodynamics, published in 1969, Goldreich and Julian propose some basic properties of pulsars, such as the oft-cited Goldreich-Julian density, light cylinder, open and closed magnetic field lines, corotation and so on. However, inspection of their mathematics reveals three mistakes: first, the relative velocity is irrelevantly replaced by the corotation velocity; second, a hypothesis in their theory is contradictory to Maxwell's equations; and third, their theory neglected a special solution of the frozen-in field equation which is of particular importance for pulsar research. We additionally describe the results of a series of magnetohydrodynamic experiments that may be beneficial to the understanding of pulsar electrodynamics.