Open AccessPulsar magnetospheres: a general relativistic treatment
Author(s) -
Kim Hongsu,
Lee Hyung Mok,
Lee Chul H.,
Lee Hyun Kyu
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08839.x
Subject(s) - physics , magnetosphere , pulsar , magnetohydrodynamics , astrophysics , neutron star , black hole (networking) , context (archaeology) , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , computer network , paleontology , routing protocol , routing (electronic design automation) , computer science , biology , link state routing protocol
A fully general relativistic description of pulsar magnetospheres is provided. To be more specific, a study of pulsar magnetospheres is performed in the context of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) employing the so‐called Grad–Shafranov approach. Not surprisingly, the resulting Grad–Shafranov equations and all the other related general relativistic MHD equations turn out to take essentially the same structures as those for a (rotating) black hole magnetosphere. Other different natures between the two cases including the structure of singular surfaces of MHD flows in each magnetosphere are essentially encoded in the different space–time (metric) contents. In this way, pulsar and black hole magnetospheres can be described in a unified fashion. Particularly, the direction of poloidal currents circulating in the neutron star magnetosphere turns out to be the same as that of currents circulating in a black hole magnetosphere, which in turn leads to pulsar and black hole spin‐down via ‘magnetic braking’.