Investigations of the magnetospheric plasma distribution in the vicinity of a pulsar - DYMPHNA3D

John Mc Donald, Andrew Shearer

Research output: Chapter in Book or Conference Publication/ProceedingConference Publicationpeer-review

Abstract

The magnetospheric plasma distribution in the vicinity of a pulsar at various inclination angles is investigated using a new relativistic, parallel 3D Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code, DYMPHNA3D. Our initial simulation results are presented here. These show similar solutions to those obtained from previous numerical simulations, which show the fundamental plasma distribution in the vicinity of an aligned rotating neutron star to consist of two polar domes and an equatorial torus of trapped non-neutral plasma of opposite sign, separated by a vacuum gap. Furthermore, our code allows for off-axis simulations and we have we have found that this plasma distribution collapses into a quad-lobe charge-separated non-neutral distribution in the case of an orthogonal rotator, bearing a stark resemblance to that predicted theoretically by Parish in 1974, [11], with the exception that in our results, the plasma remains trapped close to the stellar surface by the force-free (EB=0) surfaces observed in this region.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publication40 Years Of Pulsars
Subtitle of host publicationMillisecond Pulsars, Magnetars and More
Pages124-126
Number of pages3
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2008
Event40 Years Of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars and More - Montreal, QC, Canada
Duration: 12 Aug 200717 Aug 2007

Publication series

NameAIP Conference Proceedings
Volume983
ISSN (Print)0094-243X
ISSN (Electronic)1551-7616

Conference

Conference40 Years Of Pulsars: Millisecond Pulsars, Magnetars and More
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal, QC
Period12/08/0717/08/07

Keywords

  • (stars:) pulsars: general
  • Methods: numerical
  • Plasmas

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