Abstract
The effect of the two-stream instability which may develop in the pulsar wind zone is studied. The excited waves produce an effective friction and momentum diffusion on the plasma particles. It is therefore impossible for the two components of the plasma particles to maintain the relative velocity which Cheng and Ruderman (1977) showed is required by the force-free condition. In other words, the force-free condition will not be satisfied in the presence of turbulence. Because of the diffusion in momentum space caused by the turbulence, the same instability will not develop downstream after the initial turbulent energy is dissipated. It is argued that the moderate momentum spread does not quench the instability near the star. The resulting coherent radiation peaks at a much higher frequency than the radio band. The lack of observation of such radiation seems to indicate either that the momentum spread is large or that the plasma does not tend to the force-free configuration in the pulsar wind zone.
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