Energy transport in a rotation-modulated pulsar wind

Abstract

A rotation-powered pulsar generates large-amplitude, oscillating electromagnetic fields in its relativistic wind. The importance of these fields in transporting energy within the wind and determining the structure of the wind is investigated here. It is shown that the theory of ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) underpinning standard, steady-state wind models does not apply throughout the wind and must be replaced by an exact one-fluid theory that includes a generalized, relativistic Ohm's law. It is also shown, by constructing the wind artificially from the pulsar's vacuum fields by adding test particles, that the wind displacement current asymptotically dominates the conduction current; that..