2002/01/22 by Anatoly Spitkovsky, Spitkovsky, Anatoly, Jonathan Arons +1
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Geomagnetism and Paleomagnetism Studies #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0201360
To appear in "Neutron Stars in Supernova Remnants" (ASP Conference Proceedings), eds P. O. Slane and B. M. Gaensler. 6 pages. Figures degraded to fit on astro-ph
arxiv created 2002/01/22 · openalex publication_date 2002/01/22 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We present initial results of the first self-consistent numerical model of the outer magnetosphere of a pulsar. By using the relativistic ``particle-in-cell'' method with special boundary conditions to represent plasma dynamics in 3D, we are able to follow magnetospheric plasma through the light cylinder into the wind zone for arbitrary magnetic inclination angles. For aligned rotators we confirm the ``disk-dome'' charge-separated structure of the magnetosphere and find that this configuration is unstable to a 3D nonaxisymmetric diocotron instability. This instability allows plasma to move across the field lines and approach the corotating Goldreich-Julian solution within several rotation periods. For oblique rotators formation of the spiral ``striped wind'' in the equatorial direction is demonstrated and the acceleration of the wind and its magnetization is discussed. We find that the wind properties vary with stellar latitude; however, whether injection conditions at the pulsar are responsible for the observed jet-equator geometry of Crab and Vela is currently under investigation. We also comment on the electrodynamics of the simulated magnetospheres, their current closure, and future simulations.