Are there two types of pulsars?

TL;DR

This paper combines force-free and Aristotelian electrodynamics to model pulsar magnetospheres, revealing that dissipation occurs mainly in equatorial current sheets and suggesting two pulsar types based on dissipation levels.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid modeling approach to analyze pulsar magnetospheres, highlighting the role of dissipation and proposing a classification of pulsars into two types.

Findings

Significant dissipative losses up to 50% of spindown luminosity.

Dissipation occurs mainly in equatorial current sheets.

Possible existence of two pulsar types based on dissipation and particle injection.

Abstract

In order to investigate the importance of dissipation in the pulsar magnetosphere we decided to combine Force-Free with Aristotelian Electrodynamics. We obtain solutions that are ideal (non-dissipative) everywhere except in an equatorial current sheet where Poynting flux from both hemispheres converges and is dissipated into particle acceleration and radiation. We find significant dissipative losses (up to about 50% of the pulsar spindown luminosity), similar to what is found in global PIC simulations in which particles are provided only on the stellar surface. We conclude that there might indeed exist two types of pulsars, strongly dissipative ones with particle injection only from the stellar surface, and ideal (weakly dissipative) ones with particle injection in the outer magnetosphere and in particular at the Y-point.