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Free keywords:
Astrophysics, High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena, astro-ph.HE
MPINP:
Theoretische Astrophysik - Abteilung Hofmann
Abstract:
Stationary pulsar magnetospheres in the force-free system are governed by the
pulsar equation. In 1999, Contopoulos, Kazanas, and Fendt (hereafter CKF)
numerically solved the pulsar equation and obtained a pulsar magnetosphere
model called the CKF solution that has both closed and open magnetic field
lines. The CKF solution is a successful solution, but it contains a poloidal
current sheet that flows along the last open field line. This current sheet is
artificially added to make the current system closed. In this paper, we suggest
an alternative method to solve the pulsar equation and construct pulsar
magnetosphere models without a current sheet. In our method, the pulsar
equation is decomposed into Ampere's law and the force-free condition. We
numerically solve these equations simultaneously with a fixed poloidal current.
As a result, we obtain a pulsar magnetosphere model without a current sheet,
which is similar to the CKF solution near the neutron star and has a jet-like
structure at a distance along the pole. In addition, we discuss physical
properties of the model and find that the force-free condition breaks down in a
vicinity of the light cylinder due to dissipation that is included implicitly
in the numerical method.
