The Nature of Coherent Radio Emission from Pulsars

TL;DR

This paper reviews observational and theoretical insights into the coherent curvature radio emission mechanism in pulsars, focusing on charged solitons in relativistic pair plasma near the light cylinder.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent high-quality observations with theoretical models to clarify the nature of pulsar radio emission mechanisms.

Findings

Charged solitons can excite coherent curvature emission.

Emission occurs below the plasma frequency in relativistic pair plasma.

Observations support the curvature emission model.

Abstract

The pulsar radio emission originates from regions below 10% of the light cylinder radius. This requires a mechanism where coherent emission is excited in relativistic pair plasma with frequency $\nu_{cr}$ which is below the plasma frequency $\nu_{\circ}$ i.e. $\nu_{cr} < \nu_{\circ}$. A possible model for the emission mechanism is charged bunches (charged solitons) moving relativistically along the curved open dipolar magnetic field lines capable of exciting coherent curvature radio emission. In this article we review the results from high quality observations in conjunction with theoretical models to unravel the nature of coherent curvature radio emission in pulsars.