Plasma-Wave Interaction in Non-Aligned Pulsar Models

Abstract

The equations to a cold, non-dissipative plasma in the zero rest-mass limit are applied to rotating systems with simple geometries, and with the magnetic and rotation axes non-aligned. The only solutions that are non-singular at the light cylinder and the equator do not propagate energy across the light cylinder, and require a reflector at infinity. It is conjectured that in realistic models of pulsar magnetospheres, with a Sommerfeld boundary condition at infinity, a quasi-steady state is reached only when the particles have been accelerated to energies high enough for inertial terms to be important: the plasma modifies the vacuum wave, and the wave accelerates the particles to highly relativistic energies. A few comments are made also on current axisymmetric models.