Magnetocentrifugal acceleration of bulk motion of plasma in pulsar magnetosphere

Acceleration of bulk motion of plasma due to magnetocentrifugal mechanism is investigated for different shapes of the field lines of 3D magnetic field. It is shown that this mechanism can be efficient provided that the field line is twisted into direction of rotation. According to the last results o...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society 2014-09, Vol.443 (3), p.2197-2203
Main Author: Bogovalov, S. V.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Magnetic fields
Numerical analysis
Plasma physics
Pulsars
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Summary:Acceleration of bulk motion of plasma due to magnetocentrifugal mechanism is investigated for different shapes of the field lines of 3D magnetic field. It is shown that this mechanism can be efficient provided that the field line is twisted into direction of rotation. According to the last results of the numerical modelling, a fraction of the field lines with such geometrical shape apparently exist in the pulsar magnetosphere close to the last closed field line. In this case the Lorentz factor γ increases with the radius r along these field lines as γ ∼ (1 − (rΩ/c)2)−1, where Ω is the angular velocity of the pulsar rotation. The magnetocentrifugal mechanism provides acceleration of the electrons to the energy which is sufficient to explain the observed Very High Energy pulsed γ-rays from Crab pulsar.
ISSN:0035-8711
1365-2966
DOI:10.1093/mnras/stu1283