The Synchrotron Emission Mechanism in the Recently Detected Very High Energy Radiation from the Crab Pulsar

TL;DR

This paper proposes that synchrotron radiation, caused by cyclotron instability in the magnetosphere, explains the very high energy pulsed emission observed from the Crab pulsar, aligning with recent MAGIC telescope data.

Contribution

It demonstrates that synchrotron emission, driven by cyclotron instability, can account for the VHE radiation from the Crab pulsar, providing a spatially localized emission mechanism.

Findings

Synchrotron radiation explains VHE emission observed by MAGIC.

Cyclotron instability induces non-zero pitch angles in plasma electrons.

Estimated VHE spectral index is approximately -1/2.

Abstract

Interpretation of the recently discovered very high energy (VHE) pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar is presented. By taking into account the fact that Crab pulsar's radiation for the optical and VHE spectrum peak at the same phases, we argue that the source of this broad band emission is spatially localized. It is shown that the only mechanism providing the results of the MAGIC Cherenkov telescope, should be the synchrotron radiation. We find that in the magnetospheric electron-positron plasma, due to the cyclotron instability, the pitch angle becomes non-vanishing, which leads to the efficient synchrotron mechanism, intensifying on the light cylinder lengthscales. We also estimate the VHE radiation spectral index to be equal to -1/2.