A multi-component Langmuir-mode source for the observed pulsar coherent emission

TL;DR

This paper proposes a multi-component Langmuir-mode plasma model at pulsar polar caps to explain the universal features of pulsar radio emission, nulls, and mode-changes, linking plasma physics to observed pulsar behaviors.

Contribution

It introduces a novel multi-component Langmuir-mode plasma model as the physical basis for pulsar coherent emission and magnetospherical bistability, explaining nulls and mode-changes.

Findings

Ion-proton plasma formation at polar caps influences emission presence

Bistability explains nulls and mode-changes in pulsars

Model accounts for universal emission spectra across pulsars

Abstract

Several classes of neutron star are sources of coherent emission at frequencies of 10^2 - 10^3 MHz: others are radio-quiet. The primary emission spectra are broadly universal in form over many orders of magnitude in rotation period and polar-cap magnetic flux density. The existence of nulls and mode-changes in some radio-loud pulsars can be understood only as a manifestation of magnetospherical bistability. An ion-proton plasma with a possible background of electron-positron pairs is formed at the polar caps of stars with positive corotational charge density and is shown here to be a physical basis for the presence or absence of coherent emission and a likely reason why bistability may be present in the later stages of a pulsar lifetime.