Pulsar death line revisited -- I. Almost vacuum gap

TL;DR

This paper revisits the pulsar death line by analyzing the potential for secondary particle production at long pulsar periods, refining conditions for plasma generation in the inner gap.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of secondary plasma generation conditions, considering various parameters affecting pulsar death lines, which was not comprehensively addressed before.

Findings

Refined criteria for secondary plasma production

Quantitative analysis of parameter dependence

Enhanced understanding of pulsar death line mechanisms

Abstract

In this paper, which is the first in a series of papers devoted to a detailed analysis of the death line of radio pulsars, we consider a possibility of producing secondary particles at a sufficiently long pulsar period P. To this end, we reconsidered the potential drop necessary for secondary plasma generation in the inner gap over magnetic polar caps. Our research made it possible to refine the conditions for generating secondary plasma, such as the multiplicity of the production of secondary particles and their spatial distribution. Our research also made it possible to further quantitatively analyse the dependence of the possibility of secondary plasma generation on all parameters, including the inclination angle of the magnetic axis to the rotation axis, the polar cap size and the magnetic field geometry.