Relativistic Plasma and Pulsar Emission Mechanisms

Abstract

FROM the two established observation data of pulsar emission, namely, that the density of the energy flux from 1 cm² of the surface of the emitting region (F) is extremely large (for most pulsars F≥10¹² erg cm⁻² s⁻¹, and for NP 0532 F≥10²⁰ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹); and that the maximum effective temperature of radio emission also reaches extremely large values (for most pulsars T_ef ≍ 10²⁴ K, and for NP 0532 T_ef, ∼ 10³⁰ K), it necessarily follows that the plasma in the emitting region must be ultrarelativistic. We use that expression for the case when the mean energy ɛ_* of all plasma particles, or at least of one component (for example all electrons), is much bigger than their rest energy mc². This follows from the observational data^1,2. First, the energy radiated comes from the particle energy and therefore we have an obvious inequality, if the emission occurs near the pulsar's surface^2,3,that is,for most pulsars, from the radio energy losses, and (1)for NP 0532, from the total energy losses.