WORKING OF PULSARS

THE GOLD MODEL OF A PULSAR

Anthony Hewish and Jocelyn Bell had found rapid pulsation and the
question was what type of object could be small enough to serve as its
source. In 1968, theoreticians had two possible candidates, the white dwarf
and the neutron star, and a number of different theories sprang up to explain
the nature of pulsars. In the early days after the discovery of CP 1919, a few
more pulsars were found, thus providing further checks and constraints on
the theories; a number of these fell by the wayside in the usual scientific
competition for the survival of the fittest. In particular, it became clear that
the white dwarf could be ruled out and the neutron star, of much smaller
size, was the more likely source. Likewise, the cause of the pulses was found
to be not the oscillations of the star but its fast spin.

A model proposed by the Cornell astrophysicist Tommy Gold in 1968

ultimately emerged as the best buy from among these theories, the Gold
model served as a good starting point for any more elaborate exercise to
understand them. What may be going on in and around a neutron star can be
understood according to Gold's scenario in the following way.

A neutron star has two polar axes: a rotational axis and a magnetic
axis. The Earth also has two sets of poles, one from its rotation axis and the
other from the magnetic axis. But unlike the case of the Earth, where the two
axes are nearly aligned, in a typical neutron star the two axes may be
pointing in very different directions.

The rotating star has a swarm of electrically charged particles (the

electrons) in its atmosphere. As the star rotates so does the atmosphere,

3.2
carried along by the star's strong gravitational pull. Just as the outer parts of
a merry-go-round move much faster than its inner parts, the charged
particles in the outer parts of the atmosphere move very fast, and may
approach the speed of light. For a pulsar spinning once per second, this limit
may be reached at a distance of around 50000 km from the axis of spin.
Such fast particles are known to radiate electromagnetic waves in the
presence of magnetic fields. The radiation is highly beamed like the beam of
a rotating searchlight.

So if we happen to be located in the sweep-through area of the pulsar

beam we will get pulses of radiation each time the beam sweeps past us. The
pulse period is therefore just the period of rotation of the neutron star about
its axis.

If we follow the Gold model further, we may ask the question: what
happens to the spinning neutron star as it keeps on radiating for a long time?
Obviously, the process cannot go on forever. Indeed, as time goes on, the
spinning pulsar slows down and its pulse period increases. Thus we can
imagine that the pulsar starts off spinning very fast and, as it ages, it slows
down. A pulsar which has a pulse period of one second today may slow
down to a two-second period after, say, a million years.

Looking at pulsars of different periods, therefore, the astronomer can

tell broadly which pulsar is old and which one has just been started off. The
magnetic field also decreases as the pulsar ages and this is a factor in the
change in the intensity and spectrum of its radiation.

3.3
Super fluid rotation

The explanation of glitches has involved some remarkable physics.

The slow rotation rate show that at least 2% of the moment of inertia is
attributable, separate component of the neutron star; the long time constant
of the exponential recoveries shows that this component is a super fluid. The
two super fluid regions which might be involved are located in the core and
in the crust. Both may be involved, but in any case there must be an
explanation of the variable coupling between the angular momentum of the
fluid and that of the crust. The rotation of a super fluid is abnormal; it is
expressed as vortices, each of which contains a quantum of angular
momentum. As the rotation slows, the area density of the vortices must
reduce by an outward movement. There is, however, an interaction between
the vortices and. the lattice nuclei, so that the outward flow is impeded by
the pinning of vortices to the crystal lattice. A glitch indicates a sudden
release of vortices, transferring angular momentum to the crust. Vortices
which remain pinned to the crust take no part in the slowdown; this
effectively removes part of the rotational moment of inertia and allows the
pulsar to slow down faster.

This pinning and unpinning process accounts for the steps in rotation
rate which, on average, reverse 2% of the slowdown in rotation for the bulk
of the pulsars. But the glitches in the Crab pulsar are primarily steps in
slowdown rate that are not recovered between glitches. These steps must be
due to changes in magnetic dipole moment M (or in moment of inertia I,
which seems less likely). This appears to be related to the departure of the

3.4
observed values of braking index from the theoretical value n = 3, as
observed in the youngest pulsars. This also can be explained by a change in
M, which must be increasing at a rate comparable with the characteristic
slowdown lifetime. The magnetic field within the neutron fluid core of the
star is also quantized; it forms flux tubes which can interact with the
rotational vortices.

An interaction between the dipolar magnetic field and the rotational

vortices can lead to an accumulation of stress which is released at a glitch,
leaving a changed magnetic field configuration.

The expansion of the rotational vortex network can carry the magnetic
flux from the core into the crust, and increase the dipole moment. It may
also stress the surface of the crust, so that the glitch may involve crust
cracking and a readjustment of the surface distribution of the magnetic field.

Radio and optical emission from pulsars

The strong magnetic field completely dominates all physical processes

outside the neutron star. The force of the induced electrostatic field acting on
an electron at the surface of a rapidly rotating pulsar like the Crab pulsar
exceeds gravitation by a very large factor, which would be as much as 1012
if there were no conducting atmosphere. The magnetic field remains
approximately dipolar out to a radial distance
rc = c /ω,
that is, the distance where a co-rotating extension of the pulsar, with
angular velocity ω, would have a speed equal to the velocity of light. This

3.5
radial distance defines the velocity of light cylinder. Within this cylinder is a
co-rotating magnetosphere of high-energy plasma, in which the strong
magnetic field allows charged particles to move along but not across the
field lines. Field lines originating near the poles cross the velocity of light
cylinder, allowing energetic particles to escape; these particles are then able
to energize a surrounding nebula such as the Crab Nebula.

In the closed equatorial region the high conductivity allows the

induced electric field to be cancelled by a static field, so that
ε + c-1 (ω x r) x β = 0.
This corresponds to a charge density in the plasma, where the
difference in numbers of positive and negative charges. Is
n- - n+ = ω. β (2π.e.c)-1.
The beams of radio, optical, X-ray and gamma ray emission which
provide our only observations of the pulsars originate in the open field line
region; the surface areas where these open lines originate are known as the
polar caps. At the boundary between the closed and open regions there may
be a vacuum gap in which there is a large electric field. This region appears
to have a special significance for the high-energy radiation, which originates
in electrons and positrons streaming out through the vacuum gap. The radio
emission originates closer to the surface; its source is distributed over the
polar cap.

The strong linear polarization of both the radio and the optical
emission provides valuable clues to the geometry of the emitting regions. In
a typical radio pulse the plane of polarization swings monotonically through
an S-shape; this is interpreted as the successive observation of narrowly

3.6
beamed radiation from sources along a cut across the polar cap. The plane of
polarization is determined by the alignment of the magnetic field at the point
of origin, so that the sweep of polarization can be related to the angle
between the magnetic and rotation axes and their relation to the observer.
Lyne and Manchester showed in this way that the angles between the axes
are widely distributed; there is no evidence, however, that the inclination
angle changes during the lifetime of an individual pulsar. For those pulsars
where the axes are nearly perpendicular a pulse may be observed from both
magnetic poles, while for those in which the rotation and magnetic axes are
nearly aligned the observer must be located close to the rotation axis; in this
case the radio pulse may extend over more than half of the pulse period.

The radio pulses vary erratically in shape and amplitude from pulse to
pulse; however, the integrated profile obtained by adding some hundreds of
pulses is reproducible and characteristic of an individual pulsar. Generally,
these integrated profiles contain several distinct components, known as sub
pulses; these appear to be associated with different regions of the polar cap,
each of which excites radio emission in one narrowly defined direction. If
the excitation of each region varies randomly and independently of the
others, the sum will vary from pulse to pulse, but adding many pulses will
produce an integrated pulse profile which depends only on the average
emission from each region.

In many pulsars the variations of excitation are not independent in the

different regions. For example sudden changes in the observed integrated
profile seem to correspond to a switch between different patterns of mean
excitation; this behavior is known as moding. Again in many pulsars the

3.7
variation of intensity is organized into a steady drift across the profile over a
time of several pulse periods; this pulse drifting is regarded as a lateral
movement of an area of excitation across the polar cap. In some pulsars the
track of this movement appears to be closed, so that the same pattern of
excitation can recur after an interval considerably longer than the time for a
sub-pulse to cross the width of the pulse profile. This has been interpreted by
Deshpande and Rankin as a pattern of excitation rotating round the polar
cap.

The width of the integrated profiles varies with radio frequency.

Referring to, we note that the divergence of the polar field lines offers a
natural explanation; the lower frequencies are emitted higher in the
magnetosphere where the field lines diverge through a wider angle. The
region in which the excitation originates must only be about 250 meters
across.

Since the radius of the velocity of light cylinder is determined by the

angular velocity, the scale of the magnetosphere must range over a ratio of
5000 to 1. Nevertheless the width of the integrated profiles and the radio
spectra vary remarkably little over this range. The millisecond pulsars have
broader profiles, especially at lower radio frequencies; at high frequencies
the only difference between the radio characteristics of the two classes is in
luminosity, which is lower by a factor of ten in the millisecond pulsars. At
the other end of the scale, the 8.5s pulsar has an exceptionally narrow beam
width of only 1° and there is no explanation for this, and if it is common it
suggests that there may be a substantial population of very slow pulsars most
of which cannot be detected at all because of their narrow beams.

3.8
The radiation mechanism

The intensity of the radio emission shows at once that it must be

coherent and not thermal in any sense; the brightness temperature in some
cases exceeds 1030 K. The optical and other high-energy radiation from the
Crab and Vela pulsars, in contrast, can be accounted for as incoherent
curvature or synchrotron radiation from individual high-energy particles
streaming out along field lines at the edge of the polar cap. Furthermore, the
radio pulses show a very high degree of polarization, which on occasion
may approach 100%; this cannot be explained in terms of synchrotron or
curvature radiation. The radio emission is therefore coherent, and the
association of a particular frequency with a definite radial distance shows
that this distance is determined by a resonance in the plasma of the
magnetosphere.

Melrose argues that a two-stage process is involved, in which the

coherence derives from bunching in an unstable stream of particles, and the
radiation is a resonant coupling at a critical density to a propagating mode
directed along a field line. The linear polarization of the radiation is then
similar to that of curvature radiation. The original acceleration of the
particles takes place near the surface of the polar cap, in a cascade process.
In this cascade, as suggested by Sturrock, electrons or positrons are
accelerated to a high energy and radiate gamma rays via curvature radiation;
these gamma rays then create electron and positron pairs as they encounter
the strong magnetic field, and the new particles are accelerated to continue
the cascade.

3.9
Magnetic dipole moments

The magnetic strength of a pulsar is expressed as the polar field

strength Bo of an orthogonal dipole, calculated from the slowdown rate; for
example, the small slowdown of the millisecond pulsars indicates that their
magnetic dipole moments are smaller than for the normal pulsars. The
youngest pulsars are those associated with supernova remnants; these have
large magnetic fields. There may be an association between the magnetars
and several pulsars, but no evolutionary pattern has yet emerged. The
magnetars are distinguished by their very high X-ray luminosity, which
demands a larger source than the decay of rotational energy. It is proposed
that the source of energy for the observed X-rays may be from the decay of
the large magnetic field rather than from rotational energy.

The normal evolution of solitary pulsars, according to the slowdown

law without any change in the magnetic field, would follow a horizontal
track to the right, eventually reaching the death line as the rotation rate fell
below a critical value. The dipole moment of the youngest pulsars may be
increasing, but the actual distribution of normal pulsars suggests instead that
there is field decay in the normal population. The millisecond pulsars, which
are much older, have much lower fields as the pulsar ages the Magnetic
Field strength reduces from 1012 gauss to about 3 x 108 gauss.

Let us look into a few more models of pulsars:

3.10
The Orthogonal Rotator model of pulsars by Gunn and Ostriker

Here the neutron star is assumed to be magnetized orthogonally to

the spin axis

Figure 3.4. The orthogonal rotator which produces magnetic dipole

radiation in a vacuum. This model tells us a little about how pulsars
generate pulses, although pulses could be attributed to "crashing" of
the electromagnetic waves owing to plasma from the pulsar swept
away by the waves. The complex pulse shapes and their polarization
properties make this mechanism an unlikely source of the coherent
radio emission.

The Aligned Rotator model of Goldreich and Julian (GJ)

Here we have the other extreme where the rotation axis parallels the
magnetic field axis. The assumption of a pure magnetic dipole is obviously
a simplification, but a ubiquitous one. In this model, plasma about the
neutron star plays a central role in the dynamics, unlike the previous model
where it is included more or less incidentally. The source of the plasma was
originally assumed to be from the pulsar surface, owing to the huge
rotationally-induced electric field that would act on the surface if the
surroundings were vacuum. In the usual MHD approximation, one can
directly calculate what the required plasma density has to be through the

3.11
assumption that the magnetic field lines have to be equipotentials, the so-
called Goldreich-Julian density. In effect, the plasma is an extension of the
conducting neutron star and must rotate rigidly with the star. Consequently
the pulsar problem seemed to be defined self-consistently because
centrifugal forces would overpower magnetic trapping at or near the so-
called light cylinder distance where co rotation would exceed the speed of
light. The magnetic fields would be forced open as shown in Fig., plasma
would flow out and have to be replaced, and acceleration of plasma from the
surface to do this would be the natural place to look for radio emission.
Indeed a number of subsequent models simply concentrated on these
magnetic polar caps as the site of radio emission

Figure 3.5. The Goldreich-Julian model

where the magnetic field lines are taken to be
equi-potentials. space charge density is
distributed

This model had well-known short comings in that the charge

distribution over the polar caps was all of a single sign, as can be seen from
the figure and loss of such plasma would simply charge the star and halt the
flow. However the model was unable to "charge the star" because it was
already fixed and had no adjustable parameters (in fact the star is charged,

3.12
3.13
but this charge cannot be altered). Nevertheless people plugged ahead in
hopes that this seeming technicality would be patched up.

The Vacuum Gaps (Non neutral Plasmas)

The essential flaw was finally identified, although the resolution was
implicit in a number of suggestions by a number of workers. Ruderman and
coworkers proposed empty gaps in the outer magnetosphere (in order to
accelerate particles sufficiently to make the gamma-rays seen from the Crab
pulsar). Holloway showed by a simple Gedanken Experiment that regions
of the GJ magnetosphere could have empty regions.

The magnetized neutron star is essentially an inside-out Penning trap

(magnetic field lines are trapped by a spheroid body) with a gravitational
vengeance. The Goldreich-Julian model lacked free parameters because it
was the special solution where the magnetosphere was filled to capacity.
Even then, the properties of non neutral plasmas could be seen in hindsight.
If the polar regions were filled with electrons, for example, it would be
impossible to add positive particles into this region. An electric field is
required in part to support these particles against gravity. If particles of the
opposite sign are introduced, this field AND gravity both accelerate them to
the surface. In the Penning trap the same thing would eventually happen, but
before then the test particle would drift along the magnetic field lines to the
surface of the sphere, pop out, and be accelerated to the electrodes. Not only
are these plasmas non neutral, they cannot be neutralized. For that reason,
they are entirely different. They support density discontinuities with the
vacuum; occupy limited volumes of space; cannot be neutralized, are

3.14
extremely stable structures, and break the apparent self-consistency of the
GJ model.

The Pair-Plasma Avalanche

The idea of a pair/gamma-ray cascade was around at almost the

beginning of pulsar research .The idea is that a cascade can be driven by
emission of gamma-rays by energetic electrons moving on curved magnetic
field lines followed by conversion of these quanta on magnetic field
"quanta" to produce electron-positron pairs, with these new leptons radiating
in turn., as illustrated in Fig.

Figure3.6. Pair production cascade.

Hard gamma-rays from curvature radiation pair produce on the virtual

magnetic field "photons" to produce electron-positron pairs. In the usual
passive cascade, the particles attenuate in energy. In the cascade, the
electrostatic fields reaccelerate the electrons and eject the positrons. The
primary moves next to where the pair is created, causing bunching.

3.15
 The GJ model created some difficulty for this model in that the space-
charge-limited current of particles accelerated from the pulsar surface was
insufficient to drive such a cascade. In the context of GJ model, such
cascading was just another source of current when the surface seemed a
plentiful source to begin with. Thus cascading seemed an interesting
mechanism, but not an essential mechanism. Given instead magnetospheres
with potentially huge gaps, test particles would not simply cascade in the
vacuum regions but would become radiation-reaction limited and convert all
their electrostatic energy into gamma-rays and pairs. At the same time, the
new pairs would be winnowed by the accelerating field, so an initial
electron, say, would produce a pair and the positron would be halted and
accelerated backwards as shown in Fig., leaving two electrons. Since the
system is extremely relativistic, the particles are essentially co-moving and
consequently the two effects cause a dense bunch to form, with not only
obvious but quantitatively promising implications for coherent radio
emission (Michel 1991). Owing to radiation reaction, on the order of
gammas are emitted before the first pair conversion, so the exponentiation is
virtually explosive.

The Oblique Rotator model

Pulsar observers have long assumed that the pulsar magnetic field is in
general neither aligned nor orthogonal but some angle in between. So have
the theorists, except that they held out some hope that these simpler systems
might suffice in themselves and so offer a more tractable system for
analysis. But the above pair avalanching would do little in an aligned rotator
as already recognized: the magnetosphere near the star would fill up but the

3.16
distant magnetosphere would not and then the avalanching would cease; a
dead pulsar. In the case of an inclined rotator though, one has the complexity
of no symmetry axis but also the additional physics in the production of very
large amplitude electromagnetic waves by the orthogonal dipole component.
If one imagines an almost-aligned pulsar in which avalanching has
attempted to fill the magnetosphere, the essential thing to notice is that
filling along the rotation axis is much more extensive than filling toward the
light cylinder. The reason is that the electrons on the axis are only confined
to the system by the net system charge. The effect of discharging is to drive
the system charge to zero since positrons can be ejected on field lines
leading beyond the light cylinder and be lost, while the electrons simply
cause the dome to grow. But given a slight inclination, there is additionally
a wave zone.

Thus if the dome were to extend into the wave zone, the electrons
would be driven off by the ponder motive force of the waves. Thus we have
in the inclined case a mechanism for driving off both the electrons and
positrons, with the potential of solving the current closure problem. Note in
this respect that the terminology "light cylinder" serves to focus attention on
the old GJ model's assumption that centrifugal effects were responsible for
pulsar action, as if particles could not be lost unless they reached this
magical distance.

3.17