High-Altitude Emission from Pulsar Slot Gaps: The Crab Pulsar

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive 3D model of high-altitude emission from pulsar slot gaps, successfully reproducing the Crab pulsar's observed spectrum and pulse profiles across a broad energy range, and predicting correlations with radio emission.

Contribution

The paper introduces a detailed 3D emission model for pulsar slot gaps that accounts for high-altitude particle acceleration and radiation, matching observational data for the Crab pulsar.

Findings

Model reproduces Crab pulsar's broad-band spectrum.

Pulse profiles are dominated by caustics on trailing field lines.

Predicts correlations between gamma-ray and radio emissions.

Abstract

We present results of a 3D model of optical to gamma-ray emission from the slot gap accelerator of a rotation-powered pulsar. Primary electrons accelerating to high-altitudes in the unscreened electric field of the slot gap reach radiation-reaction limited Lorentz factors of 2 x 10^7, while electron-positron pairs from lower-altitude cascades flow along field lines interior to the slot gap. The curvature, synchrotron and inverse Compton radiation of both primary electrons and pairs produce a broad spectrum of emission from infra-red to GeV energies. Both primaries and pairs undergo cyclotron resonant absorption of radio photons, allowing them to maintain significant pitch angles. Synchrotron radiation from pairs with a power-law energy spectrum with Lorentz factors 10^2 - 10^5, dominate the spectrum up to 10 MeV. Synchrotron and curvature radiation of primaries dominates from 10 MeV up to a few GeV. We examine the energy-dependent pulse profiles and phase-resolved spectra for parameters of the Crab pulsar as a function of magnetic inclination and viewing angle, comparing to broad-band data. In most cases, the pulse profiles are dominated by caustics on trailing field lines. We also explore the relation of the high-energy and the radio profiles, as well as the possibility of caustic formation in the radio cone emission. We find that the Crab pulsar profiles and spectrum can be reasonably well reproduced by a model with viewing angle 45 degrees and inclination angle 100 or 80 degrees. This model predicts that the slot gap emission below 200 MeV will exhibit correlations in time and phase with the radio emission.