Pulsar giant pulse: coherent instability near light cylinder

TL;DR

This paper proposes that giant pulses from the Crab pulsar originate from plasma coherent instability near the light cylinder, producing zebra-pattern spectral structures through cyclotron-resonant interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel plasma instability model explaining the spectral zebra patterns in pulsar giant pulses, linking them to resonance and magnetic reconnection near the light cylinder.

Findings

Spectral bands fit by a coherent instability model.

Estimated plasma density near light cylinder: 10^{13-15} cm^{-3}.

Resonance modulates spectral structures and may produce high-energy emissions.

Abstract

Giant pulses (GPs) are extremely bright individual pulses of radio pulsar. In microbursts of Crab pulsar, which is an active GP emitter, zebra-pattern-like spectral structures are observed, which are reminiscent of the `zebra bands' that are observed in type IV solar radio flares. However, band spacing linearly increases with the band center frequency of $\sim5-30$\,GHz. In this study, we propose that the Crab pulsar GP can originate from the coherent instability of plasma near a light cylinder. Further, the growth of coherent instability can be attributed to the resonance observed between the cyclotron-resonant-excited wave and the background plasma oscillation. The particles can be injected into the closed-field line regions owing to magnetic reconnection near a light cylinder. These particles introduce a large amount of free energy that further causes cyclotron-resonant instability, which grows and amplifies radiative waves at frequencies close to the electron cyclotron harmonics that exhibit zebra-pattern-like spectral band structures. Further, these structures can be modulated by the resonance between the cyclotron-resonant-excited wave and the background plasma oscillation. In this scenario, the band structures of the Crab pulsar can be well fitted by a coherent instability model, where the plasma density of a light cylinder should be $\sim10^{13-15}\,\rm{cm^{-3}}$, with an estimated gradient of $>5.5\times10^5\,\rm{cm^{-4}}$. This process may be accompanied by high-energy emissions. Similar phenomena are expected to be detected in other types of GP sources that have magnetic fields of $\simeq10^6$\,G in a light cylinder.