Speaker
Description
For more than five decades, the origin of pulsar radio emission have been one of the
major unsolved problems in astrophysics. It is universally believed that generation
of radio emission is intimately connected with pair plasma production initiated by
high energy gamma-rays in pulsar polar caps. Here I will present the results of our
study of electron-positron pairs creation near magnetic poles of neutron stars which
provide a clue to this long-standing mystery. We directly demonstrate that the
intermittency of the pair creation process and its naturally-arising non-uniformity
across magnetic field lines lead to the emission of strong coherent electromagnetic
waves with properties commensurate with that of the observed pulsar radio
emission. These waves are only moderately damped by dense plasma and should escape
the magnetosphere and be observable as coherent radio emission. Our findings may lay
the theoretical foundation for the interpretation of a plethora of observational
phenomena seen in radio pulsars, magnetars, and possibly FRBs.
| Track | Pulsars |
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