Open AccessRelativistic force‐free electrodynamic simulations of neutron star magnetospheres
Author(s) -
McKinney Jonathan C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society: letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.067
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1745-3933
pISSN - 1745-3925
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-3933.2006.00150.x
Subject(s) - physics , pulsar , neutron star , magnetosphere , magnetohydrodynamic drive , astrophysics , dipole , dissipative system , magnetic dipole , luminosity , x ray pulsar , quantum electrodynamics , classical mechanics , magnetohydrodynamics , computational physics , magnetic field , quantum mechanics , galaxy
The luminosity and structure of neutron star magnetospheres are crucial to our understanding of pulsar and plerion emission. A solution found using the force‐free approximation would be an interesting standard with which any model with more physics could be compared. Prior quasi‐analytic force‐free solutions may not be stable, while prior time‐dependent magnetohydrodynamic models used unphysical model parameters. We use a time‐dependent relativistic force‐free electrodynamics code with no free parameters to find a unique stationary solution for the axisymmetric rotating pulsar magnetosphere in a Minkowski space–time in the case of no surface currents on the star. The solution is similar to the force‐free quasi‐analytic solution found in 1999 by Contopoulos, Kazanas & Fendt and the numerical magnetohydrodynamic solution found in 2006 by Komissarov. The magnetosphere structure and the usefulness of the classical y ‐point in the general dissipative regime are discussed. The pulsar luminosity is found to be L ≈ 0.99 ± 0.01 μ 2 Ω 4 ★ / c 3 for a dipole moment μ and stellar angular frequency Ω ★ .