On the primary beam deceleration in the pulsar wind

TL;DR

This paper studies how the primary beam in pulsar winds decelerates outside the light cylinder, revealing that significant deceleration occurs mainly in young pulsars like Crab and Vela, affecting energy transfer.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of primary beam deceleration in pulsar winds using three-fluid MHD approximation, highlighting differences between young and older pulsars.

Findings

Primary beam energy remains mostly unchanged in most pulsars.

Significant deceleration occurs in young pulsars like Crab and Vela.

Deceleration happens outside the fast magnetosonic surface, increasing secondary plasma energy.

Abstract

We investigate the motion of the primary beam outside the light cylinder in the pulsar wind. Inside the light cylinder both primary and secondary plasma move along dipole magnetic field lines where their energies can be arbitrary. But at larger distances the theory predicts quasi-radial motion with the velocity exactly corresponding to the drift velocity which cannot be the same for primary and secondary plasma. Hence, the deceleration of the primary beam is to take place simultaneously resulting in the acceleration of the secondary plasma. We investigate this process in the three-fluid MHD approximation and demonstrate that for most pulsars the energy of the beam remains practically unchanged. Only for young radio pulsars (Crab, Vela) essential deceleration up to the energy of the secondary plasma takes place outside the fast magnetosonic surface $r_{\rm F} \sim (10$-$100) R_{\rm L}$, the energy of secondary plasma itself increasing insufficiently.