Ab-Initio Pulsar Magnetosphere: Particle acceleration in Oblique Rotators and High-energy Emission Modeling

Understand

We perform global particle-in-cell simulations of pulsar magnetospheres including pair production, ion extraction from the surface, frame dragging corrections, and high energy photon emission and propagation.

• In the case of oblique rotators, effects of general relativity increase the fraction of open field lines which support active pair discharge.
• We find that the plasma density and particle energy flux in the pulsar wind are highly non-uniform with latitude.
• Significant fraction of the outgoing particle energy flux is carried by energetic ions, which are extracted from the stellar surface.