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Spitkovsky, Time-dependent Force-free Pulsar Mag- netospheres: Axisymmetric and Oblique Rotators, As- trophys

6 Pith papers cite this work. Polarity classification is still indexing.

6 Pith papers citing it
abstract

Magnetospheres of many astrophysical objects can be accurately described by the low-inertia (or "force-free") limit of MHD. We present a new numerical method for solution of equations of force-free relativistic MHD based on the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) approach with a prescription for handling spontaneous formation of current sheets. We use this method to study the time-dependent evolution of pulsar magnetospheres in both aligned and oblique magnetic geometries. For the aligned rotator we confirm the general properties of the time-independent solution of Contopoulos et al. (1999). For the oblique rotator we present the 3D structure of the magnetosphere and compute, for the first time, the spindown power of pulsars as a function of inclination of the magnetic axis. We find the pulsar spindown luminosity to be L = (mu^2 Omega^4/c^3) (1+ sin^2(alpha)) for a star with the dipole moment "mu", rotation frequency "Omega", and magnetic inclination angle "alpha". We also discuss the effects of current sheet resistivity and reconnection on the structure and evolution of the magnetosphere.

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2026 5 2024 1

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representative citing papers

A Transport Theory of Turbulent Coronal Heating in General Geometry

astro-ph.SR · 2026-07-09 · conditional · novelty 8.0

A controlled multiscale RMHD expansion in arbitrary magnetic geometry yields new geometry-driven turbulent heating and cross-field transport channels that can dominate standard reflection in structured coronal regions.

Crust glass formation reveals the neutron star birth properties in IGR J17480-2446

astro-ph.HE · 2026-06-20 · unverdicted · novelty 6.0

Accretion-induced failure of the neutron star crystal crust produces a glass layer that explains the observed cooling, fixes the accreted mass at 2.4e-6 solar masses, and indicates birth properties typical of recycled neutron stars, potentially from electron-capture supernova formation.

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