Theory of the radio emission of pulsars

• DOI: 10.1007/bf00637577
• Publication Date: 2004-11-26T10:12:12Z
• Authors: V. S. Beskin; A. V. Gurevich; Ya. N. Istomin
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences; 7. Clean energy

A consistent theory of excitation, stabilization, and propagation of electromagnetic oscillations in a relativistic one-dimensional electron-positron plasma flowing along curved magnetic field lines is presented. It is shown that in such a medium which is typical of the magnetosphere of a neutron star there exist unstable natural modes of oscillations. Nonlinear saturation of the instability leads to an effective energy conversion into transverse oscillations capable of leaving the magnetosphere of a pulsar. The polarization spectrum and the directivity pattern of generated radiation are determined. A comparison with observations has shown that the theory makes it possible to explain practically all the basic characteristics of observed pulsar radio emission.