Abstract
Plasmoids—magnetized quasi-circular structures formed self-consistently in reconnecting current sheets—were previously considered to be the graveyards of energetic particles. In this paper, ...we demonstrate the important role of plasmoids in shaping the particle energy spectrum in relativistic reconnection (i.e., with upstream magnetization
σ
up
≫ 1). Using 2D particle-in-cell simulations in pair plasmas with
σ
up
= 10 and 100, we study a secondary particle energization process that takes place inside compressing plasmoids. We demonstrate that plasmoids grow in time, while their interiors compress, amplifying the internal magnetic field. The magnetic field felt by particles injected in an isolated plasmoid increases linearly with time, which leads to particle energization as a result of magnetic moment conservation. For particles injected with a power-law distribution function, this energization process acts in such a way that the shape of the injected power law is conserved, while producing an additional nonthermal tail
f
(
E
) ∝
E
−3
at higher energies, followed by an exponential cutoff. The cutoff energy, which increases with time as
, can greatly exceed
σ
up
m
e
c
2
. We analytically predict the secondary acceleration timescale and the shape of the emerging particle energy spectrum, which can be of major importance in certain astrophysical systems, such as blazar jets.
We study diffusive shock acceleration (DSA) of electrons in nonrelativistic quasi-perpendicular shocks using self-consistent one-dimensional particle-in-cell simulations. By exploring the parameter ...space of sonic and Alfvénic Mach numbers we find that high Mach number quasi-perpendicular shocks can efficiently accelerate electrons to power-law downstream spectra with slopes consistent with DSA prediction. Electrons are reflected by magnetic mirroring at the shock and drive nonresonant waves in the upstream. Reflected electrons are trapped between the shock front and upstream waves, and undergo multiple cycles of shock-drift acceleration before the injection into DSA. Strong current-driven waves also temporarily change the shock obliquity and cause mild proton pre-acceleration even in quasi-perpendicular shocks, which otherwise do not accelerate protons. These results can be used to understand nonthermal emission in supernova remnants and intracluster medium in galaxy clusters.
Abstract
Some of the most energetic pulsars exhibit rotation-modulated
γ
-ray emission in the 0.1–100 GeV band. The luminosity of this emission is typically 0.1%–10% of the pulsar spin-down power (
γ
...-ray efficiency), implying that a significant fraction of the available electromagnetic energy is dissipated in the magnetosphere and reradiated as high-energy photons. To investigate this phenomenon we model a pulsar magnetosphere using 3D particle-in-cell simulations with strong synchrotron cooling. We particularly focus on the dynamics of the equatorial current sheet where magnetic reconnection and energy dissipation take place. Our simulations demonstrate that a fraction of the spin-down power dissipated in the magnetospheric current sheet is controlled by the rate of magnetic reconnection at microphysical plasma scales and only depends on the pulsar inclination angle. We demonstrate that the maximum energy and the distribution function of accelerated pairs is controlled by the available magnetic energy per particle near the current sheet, the magnetization parameter. The shape and the extent of the plasma distribution is imprinted in the observed synchrotron emission, in particular, in the peak and the cutoff of the observed spectrum. We study how the strength of synchrotron cooling affects the observed variety of spectral shapes. Our conclusions naturally explain why pulsars with higher spin-down power have wider spectral shapes and, as a result, lower
γ
-ray efficiency.
The equatorial current sheet in pulsar magnetospheres is often regarded as an ideal site for particle acceleration via relativistic reconnection. Using 2D spherical particle-in-cell simulations, we ...investigate particle acceleration in the axisymmetric pulsar magnetosphere as a function of the injected plasma multiplicity and magnetization. We observe a clear transition from a highly charge-separated magnetosphere for low plasma injection with little current and spin-down power, to a nearly force-free solution for high plasma multiplicity characterized by a prominent equatorial current sheet and high spin-down power. We find significant magnetic dissipation in the current sheet, up to 30 per cent within 5 light-cylinder radii in the high-multiplicity regime. The simulations unambiguously demonstrate that the dissipated Poynting flux is efficiently channelled to the particles in the sheet, close to the Y-point within about 1-2 light-cylinder radii from the star. The mean particle energy in the sheet is given by the upstream plasma magnetization at the light cylinder. The study of particle orbits shows that all energetic particles originate from the boundary layer between the open and the closed field lines. Energetic positrons always stream outwards, while high-energy electrons precipitate back towards the star through the sheet and along the separatrices, which may result in auroral-like emission. Our results suggest that the current sheet and the separatrices may be the main source of high-energy radiation in young pulsars.
ABSTRACT The interaction of a rotating star's magnetic field with a surrounding plasma disk lies at the heart of many questions posed by neutron stars in X-ray binaries. We consider the opening of ...stellar magnetic flux due to differential rotation along field lines coupling the star and disk, using a simple model for the disk-opened flux, the torques exerted on the star by the magnetosphere, and the power extracted by the electromagnetic wind. We examine the conditions under which the system enters an equilibrium spin state, in which the accretion torque is instantaneously balanced by the pulsar wind torque alone. For magnetic moments, spin frequencies, and accretion rates relevant to accreting millisecond pulsars, the spin-down torque from this enhanced pulsar wind can be substantially larger than that predicted by existing models of the disk-magnetosphere interaction, and is in principle capable of maintaining spin equilibrium at frequencies less than 1 kHz. We speculate that this mechanism may account for the non-detection of frequency increases during outbursts of SAX J1808.4-3658 and XTE J1814-338, and may be generally responsible for preventing spin-up to sub-millisecond periods. If the pulsar wind is collimated by the surrounding environment, the resulting jet can satisfy the power requirements of the highly relativistic outflows from Cir X-1 and Sco X-1. In this framework, the jet power scales relatively weakly with accretion rate, , and would be suppressed at high accretion rates only if the stellar magnetic moment is sufficiently low.
Abstract
The current state of the art in pulsar magnetosphere modelling assumes the force-free limit of magnetospheric plasma. This limit retains only partial information about plasma velocity and ...neglects plasma inertia and temperature. We carried out time-dependent 3D relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of oblique pulsar magnetospheres that improve upon force free by retaining the full plasma velocity information and capturing plasma heating in strong current layers. We find rather low levels of magnetospheric dissipation, with < 10 per cent of pulsar spin-down energy dissipated within a few light cylinder radii, and the MHD spin-down that is consistent with that in force free. While oblique magnetospheres are qualitatively similar to the rotating split-monopole force-free solution at large radii, we find substantial quantitative differences with the split-monopole, e.g., the luminosity of the pulsar wind is more equatorially concentrated than the split-monopole at high obliquities, and the flow velocity is modified by the emergence of reconnection flow directed into the current sheet.
We perform "first-principles" relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of aligned pulsar magnetosphere. We allow free escape of particles from the surface of a neutron star and continuously populate ...the magnetosphere with neutral pair plasma to imitate pair production. As pair plasma supply increases, we observe the transition from a charge-separated "electrosphere" solution with trapped plasma and no spin-down to a solution close to the ideal force-free magnetosphere with electromagnetically dominated pulsar wind. We calculate the magnetospheric structure, current distribution, and spin-down power of the neutron star. We also discuss particle acceleration in the equatorial current sheet.
ABSTRACT We present "first-principles" relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of the oblique pulsar magnetosphere with pair formation. The magnetosphere starts to form with particles extracted ...from the surface of the neutron star. These particles are accelerated by surface electric fields and emit photons capable of producing electron-positron pairs. We inject secondary pairs at the locations of primary energetic particles whose energy exceeds the threshold for pair formation. We find solutions that are close to the ideal force-free magnetosphere with the Y-point and current sheet. Solutions with obliquities ≤40° do not show pair production in the open field line region because the local current density along the magnetic field is below the Goldreich-Julian value. The bulk outflow in these solutions is charge-separated, and pair formation happens in the current sheet and return current layer only. Solutions with higher inclinations show pair production in the open field line region, with high multiplicity of the bulk flow and the size of the pair-producing region increasing with inclination. We observe the spin-down of the star to be comparable to MHD model predictions. The magnetic dissipation in the current sheet ranges between 20% for the aligned rotator and 3% for the orthogonal rotator. Our results suggest that for low obliquity neutron stars with suppressed pair formation at the light cylinder, the presence of phenomena related to pair activity in the bulk of the polar region, e.g., radio emission, may crucially depend on the physics beyond our simplified model, such as the effects of curved spacetime or multipolar surface fields.
The magnetosphere of a rotating pulsar naturally develops a current sheet (CS) beyond the light cylinder (LC). Magnetic reconnection in this CS inevitably dissipates a nontrivial fraction of the ...pulsar spin-down power within a few LC radii. We develop a basic physical picture of reconnection in this environment and discuss its implications for the observed pulsed gamma-ray emission. We argue that reconnection proceeds in the plasmoid-dominated regime, via a hierarchical chain of multiple secondary islands/flux ropes. The inter-plasmoid reconnection layers are subject to strong synchrotron cooling, leading to significant plasma compression. Using the conditions of pressure balance across these current layers, the balance between the heating by magnetic energy dissipation and synchrotron cooling, and Ampere's law, we obtain simple estimates for key parameters of the layers-temperature, density, and layer thickness. In the comoving frame of the relativistic pulsar wind just outside of the equatorial CS, these basic parameters are uniquely determined by the strength of the reconnecting upstream magnetic field. For the case of the Crab pulsar, we find them to be of order 10 GeV, 10 super(13) cm super(-3), and 10 cm, respectively. After accounting for the bulk Doppler boosting due to the pulsar wind, the synchrotron and inverse-Compton emission from the reconnecting CS can explain the observed pulsed high-energy (GeV) and very high energy (~100 GeV) radiation, respectively. Also, we suggest that the rapid relative motions of the secondary plasmoids in the hierarchical chain may contribute to the production of the pulsar radio emission.
In this Letter we propose that coherent radio emission of the Crab pulsar, other young energetic pulsars, and millisecond pulsars is produced in the magnetospheric current sheet beyond the light ...cylinder. We carry out global and local 2D kinetic plasma simulations of reconnection to illustrate the coherent emission mechanism. Reconnection in the current sheet beyond the light cylinder proceeds in the very efficient plasmoid-dominated regime, where the current layer gets fragmented into a dynamic chain of plasmoids that undergo successive coalescence. Mergers of sufficiently large plasmoids produce secondary perpendicular current sheets, which are also plasmoid unstable. Collisions of plasmoids with each other and with the upstream magnetic field eject fast magnetosonic waves, which propagate upstream across the background field and successfully escape from the plasma as electromagnetic waves that fall in the radio band. This model successfully explains many important features of the observed radio emission from the Crab and other pulsars with high magnetic field at the light cylinder: phase coincidence with the high-energy emission, nanosecond duration (nanoshots), and extreme instantaneous brightness of individual pulses.
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