A Joint Radio Gamma-ray Variability Study of the Crab Pulsar

Abstract

In order to understand pulsar emission, and coherent emission processes in general, it is important to assess the relationship between high energy and radio emission. Gamma-ray radio correlations can be used to test whether observed radio variability is solely the result of modifications to the radio emission processes (e.g., non-linear wave propagation [1]) or associated with bulk changes in the pulsar magnetosphere and charged particle flow (e.g., [2] and [3]). In the former case, gamma-ray emission would not be correlated with radio variability, but in the latter case, a pronounced correlation between gamma-rays would be expected. Giant radio pulses from the Crab pulsar [4] provide the best opportunity to study this relationship because they occur relatively frequently and provide a non-stationary signal which can be correlated against the high energy emission.