Nonlinear electromagnetic wave propagation in the termination shock of a pulsar wind

Abstract

We employ particle-in-cell simulations to study the coupling between a relativistically streaming, electron-positron plasma and a nonlinear, superluminal, circularly polarized, transverse electromagnetic (TEM) wave. For an unshocked wave, we verify the analytic dispersion relation for nonlinear TEM waves. For a shocked plasma wave, we find that the wave fields modulate the shock internally, increasing its characteristic temperature, and accelerating the pairs anisotropically. The prime application of the results is the termination shock of the Crab pulsar wind. © 2005 American Institute of Physics.