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Towards a Realistic Pulsar MagnetosphereWe present the magnetic and electric field structures as well as the currents ami charge densities of pulsar magnetospberes which do not obey the ideal condition, E(raised dot) B = O. Since the acceleration of particles and the production of radiation requires the presence of an electric field component parallel to the magnetic field, E(sub ll) the structure of non-Ideal pulsar magnetospheres is intimately related to the production of pulsar radiation. Therefore, knowledge of the structure of non-Ideal pulsar maglletospheres is important because their comparison (including models for t he production of radiation) with observations will delineate the physics and the parameters underlying the pulsar radiation problem. We implement a variety of prescriptions that support nonzero values for E(sub ll) and explore their effects on the structure of the resulting magnetospheres. We produce families of solutions that span the entire range between the vacuum and the (ideal) Force-Free Electrodynamic solutions. We also compute the amount of dissipation as a fraction of the Poynting flux for pulsars of different angles between the rotation and magnetic axes and conclude that tltis is at most 20-40% (depending on t he non-ideal prescription) in the aligned rotator and 10% in the perpendicular one. We present also the limiting solutions with the property J = pc and discuss their possible implicatioll on the determination of the "on/ off" states of the intermittent pulsars. Finally, we find that solutions with values of J greater than those needed to null E(sub ll) locally produce oscillations, potentially observable in the data.
Document ID
20120007923
Acquisition Source
Goddard Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Kalapotharakos, Constantinos
(Maryland Univ. College Park, MD, United States)
Kazanas, Demosthenes
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Harding, Alice
(NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)
Contopoulos, Ioannis
(Academy of Athens Greece)
Date Acquired
August 25, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2012
Subject Category
Astrophysics
Report/Patent Number
GSFC-E-DAA-TN10095
GSFC.JA.6264.2012
GSFC.ABS.5886.2012
Report Number: GSFC-E-DAA-TN10095
Report Number: GSFC.JA.6264.2012
Report Number: GSFC.ABS.5886.2012
Funding Number(s)
CONTRACT_GRANT: NNG06EO90A
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.
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