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The formation of a large-scale current sheet is a generic feature of pulsarmagnetospheres. If the magnetic axis is misaligned with the star rotation axis,the current sheet is an oscillatory structure filling an equatorial wedgedetermined by the inclination angle, known as the striped wind. Relativisticreconnection could lead to significant dissipation of magnetic energy andparticle acceleration although the efficiency of this process is debated inthis context. In this study, we aim at reconciling global models of pulsar winddynamics and reconnection in the stripes within the same numerical framework,in order to shed new light on dissipation and particle acceleration in pulsarwinds. To this end, we perform large three-dimensional particle-in-cellsimulations of a split-monopole magnetosphere, from the stellar surface up tofifty light-cylinder radii away from the pulsar. Plasmoid-dominatedreconnection efficiently fragments the current sheet into a dynamical networkof interacting flux ropes separated by secondary current sheets which consumethe field efficiently at all radii, even past the fast magnetosonic point. Ourresults suggest there is a universal dissipation radius solely determined bythe reconnection rate in the sheet, lying well upstream the termination shockradius in isolated pair producing pulsars. The wind bulk Lorentz factor is muchless relativistic than previously thought. In the comoving frame, the wind iscomposed of hot pairs trapped within flux ropes with a hard broad power-lawspectrum, whose maximum energy is limited by the magnetization of the wind atlaunch. We conclude that the striped wind is most likely fully dissipated whenit enters the pulsar wind nebula. The predicted wind particle spectrum afterdissipation is reminiscent of the Crab Nebula radio-emitting electrons.

Dissipation of the striped pulsar wind and non-thermal particle acceleration: 3D PIC simulations