On the search for artificial Dyson-like structures around pulsars

TL;DR

This paper explores the theoretical possibility of supercivilizations building Dyson-like ring structures around pulsars, analyzing their size, temperature, stability, and potential for detection via infrared observations.

Contribution

It extends Dyson's concept to pulsars, proposing ring-like structures and analyzing their physical feasibility and observational signatures.

Findings

Ring sizes range from 10^{-4} to 350 AU depending on pulsar rotation.

Rings around slowly rotating pulsars are more feasible and promising for detection.

Stresses from radiation and wind flows do not prevent ring stability.

Abstract

Assuming the possibility of existence of a supercivilization we extend the idea of Freeman Dyson considering pulsars instead of stars. It is shown that instead of a spherical shell the supercivilization must use ring-like constructions. We have found that a size of the "ring" should be of the order of $(10^{-4}-10^{-1})$AU with temperature interval $(300-600)$K for relatively slowly rotating pulsars and $(10-350)$AU with temperature interval $(300-700)$K for rapidly spinning neutron stars, respectively. Although for the latter the Dyson construction is unrealistically massive and cannot be considered seriously. Analyzing the stresses in terms of the radiation and wind flows it has been argued that they cannot significantly affect the ring construction. On the other hand, the ring in-plane unstable equilibrium can be restored by the energy which is small compared to the energy extracted from the star. This indicates that the search for infrared ring-like sources close to slowly rotating pulsars seems to be quite promising.