GENERAL RELATIVISTIC EFFECTS ON THE INDUCED ELECTRIC FIELD EXTERIOR TO PULSARS

TL;DR

This paper investigates how general relativity influences the induced electric field around pulsars, showing significant effects near the star's surface that impact particle acceleration and radiation production.

Contribution

It derives the expressions for the induced electric field in Schwarzschild geometry for both vacuum and non-vacuum pulsar magnetospheres, highlighting the role of gravity.

Findings

Electric field magnitude and direction are significantly affected by curved spacetime.

Surface charge density and particle acceleration increase near the star's surface.

Results have implications for high-energy radiation mechanisms in pulsars.

Abstract

The importance of general relativity to the induced electric field exterior to pulsars has been investigated by assuming aligned vacuum and non-vacuum magnetosphere models. For this purpose the stationary and axisymmetric vector potential in Schwarzschild geometry has been considered and the corresponding expressions for the induced electric field due to the rotation of the magnetic dipole have been derived for both vacuum and non-vacuum conditions. Due to the change in the magnetic dipole field in curved spacetime the induced electric field also changes its magnitude and direction and increases significantly near the surface of the star. As a consequence the surface charge density, the acceleration of charged particles in vacuum magnetospheres and the space charge density in non-vacuum magnetosphere greatly increase near the surface of the star. The results provide the most general feature of the important role played by gravitation and could have several potentially important implications for the production of high-energy radiation from pulsars.