We discuss constraints that the observed brightness temperatures impose on coherent processes in pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), and in particular on the hypothesis of coherent curvature emission by bunches. We estimate the peak brightness temperature that a bunch of charge $Ze$ can produce via synchrotron and/or curvature emission as $k_B T \sim (Z e)^2/λ$, where $λ$ is the typical emitted wavelength. We demonstrate that the bunch's electrostatic energy required to produce observed brightness temperature is prohibitively high, of the order of the total {\it bulk } energy. We compare corresponding requirements for the Free Electron Laser mechanism (Lyutikov 2021) and find that in that case the constraints are much easier satisfied.
Magnetars are a class of highly magnetized, slowly rotating neutron stars, only a small fraction of which exhibit radio emission. We propose that the coherent radio curvature emission is generated by net charge fluctuations from a twist-current-carrying bundle (the j-bundle) in the scenario of magnetar-quake. Two-photon pair production is triggered, which requires a threshold voltage not too much higher than $10^9$ V in the current-carrying bundle, and which can be regarded as the `open field lines' of a magnetar. Continued untwisting of the magnetosphere maintains change fluctuations, and hen…
The extremely high brightness temperature of fast radio bursts (FRBs) requires that their emission mechanism must be "coherent", either through concerted particle emission by bunches or through an exponential growth of a plasma wave mode or radiation amplitude via certain maser mechanisms. The bunching mechanism has been mostly discussed within the context of curvature radiation or cyclotron/synchrotron radiation. Here we propose a family of model invoking coherent inverse Compton scattering (ICS) of bunched particles that may operate within or just outside of the magnetosphere of a flaring ma…
Lyutikov (2002) predicted "radio emission from soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) during their bursting activity". Detection of a Mega-Jansky radio burst in temporal coincidence with high energy bursts from a Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 confirms that prediction. Similarity of this radio event with Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) suggests that FRBs are produced within magnetar magnetospheres. We demonstrate that SGR 1935+2154 satisfies the previously derived constraints on the physical parameters at the FRBs' loci. Coherent radio emission is generated in the inner parts of the magnetosphere at $r< 10…
The radiation formation length for relativistic particles, $l_c \sim γ^2 λ$ ($γ$ is the Lorentz factor, $λ$ is the emitted wavelength), is much lager than the inter-particle distances in many astrophysical applications. This leads to the importance of plasma effects even for the high energy emission. The consequences are nontrivial: (i) averaging of the phases of the emitting particles reduces the power (a.k.a., a circle current does not emit); (ii) density fluctuations may lead to the sporadic production of coherent emission; (iii) plasma effects during assembly of a photon may lead to the su…
The extremely high brightness temperatures of pulsars and fast radio bursts (FRBs) require their radiation mechanisms to be coherent. Coherent curvature radiation by bunches has been long discussed as the mechanism for radio pulsars and recently for FRBs. Assuming that bunches are already generated in pulsar magnetospheres, we calculate the spectrum of coherent curvature radiation under a three-dimensional magnetic field geometry. Different from previous works assuming parallel trajectories and a mono-energetic energy distribution of electrons, we consider a bunch characterized by its length, …
We study the propagation of a strong, low frequency, linearly polarized fast magnetosonic wave inside the magnetosphere of a neutron star. The relative strength $δB/B$ of the wave grows as a function of radius before it reaches the light cylinder, and what starts as a small perturbation can grow to become nonlinear before it escapes the magnetosphere. Using first-principles Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations, we study in detail the evolution of the wave as it becomes nonlinear. We find that an initially sinusoidal wave becomes strongly distorted as $δB/B$ approaches order unity. The wave steep…
Time-dependent pair cascades in magnetospheres of neutron stars I. Dynamics of the polar cap cascade with no particle supply from the neutron star surface
The mechanism by which the radiation received from obliquely rotating neutron stars is generated remains an open question half a century after the discovery of pulsars. In contrast, considerable progress has recently been made in determining the structure of the magnetosphere that surrounds these objects: numerical computations based on the force-free, magnetohydrodynamic and particle-in-cell formalisms have now established that the magnetosphere of an oblique rotator entails a current sheet outside its light cylinder whose rotating distribution pattern moves with linear speeds exceeding the s…
We discuss physical constrains that observations of high brightness temperature coherent radio emission, with brightness temperatures as high as $T_b \sim 10^{35}$ K, impose on the plasma parameters at relativistically moving astrophysical sources. High brightness temperatures imply a minimal plasma energy density at the source. Additional important constraints come from the fact that resonantly emitting particles lose most of their energy to non-resonant inverse Compton and synchrotron processes. We also interpret recent observations of high-to-low frequency drifting features in the spectra o…
Since pulsars were discovered as emitters of bright coherent radio emission more than half a century ago, the cause of the emission has remained a mystery. In this Letter we demonstrate that coherent radiation can be directly generated in non-stationary pair plasma discharges which are responsible for filling the pulsar magnetosphere with plasma. By means of large-scale two-dimensional kinetic plasma simulations, we show that if pair creation is non-uniform across magnetic field lines, the screening of electric field by freshly produced pair plasma is accompanied by the emission of waves which…
The detection of gravitational waves from neutron star merger events has opened up a new field of multi-messenger astronomy linking gravitational waves events to short-gamma ray bursts and kilonova afterglows. A further - yet to be discovered - electromagnetic counterpart is precursor emission produced by the non-trivial interaction of the magnetospheres of the two neutron stars prior to merger. By performing special-relativistic force-free simulations of orbiting neutron stars we discuss the effect of different magnetic field orientations and show how the emission can be significantly enhance…
We build a model of radius-to-frequency mapping in magnetospheres of neutron stars and apply it to frequency drifts observed in Fast Radio Bursts. We assume that an emission patch propagates along the dipolar magnetic field lines producing coherent emission with frequency, direction and polarization defined by the local magnetic field. The observed temporal evolution of the frequency depends on relativistic effects of time contraction and the curvature of the magnetic field lines. The model generically produces linear scaling of the drift rate, $\dotω \propto - ω$, matching both numerically an…
Radiation Reaction in Relativistic Magnetized Shocks of Neutron Star Magnetospheres
Observatoire de Paris, Sorbonne Université, Université PSL, CNRS, LUX（巴黎天文台，索邦大学，巴黎文理研究大学，法国国家科学研究中心，LUX）；School of Physics and Astronomy, Tel Aviv University（特拉维夫大学物理与天文学学院）
We review our high-time-resolution radio observations of the Crab pulsar and compare our data to a variety of models for the emission physics. The Main Pulse and the Low-Frequency Interpulse come from regions somewhere in the high-altitude emission zones (caustics) that also produce pulsed X-ray and gamma-ray emission. Although no emission model can fully explain these two components, the most likely models suggest they arise from a combination of beam-driven instabilities, coherent charge bunching and strong electromagnetic turbulence. Because the radio power fluctuates on a wide range of tim…
Millisecond spinning, low magnetic field neutron stars are believed to attain their fast rotation in a 0.1-1 Gyr-long phase during which they accrete matter endowed with angular momentum from a low-mass companion star. Despite extensive searches, coherent periodicities originating from accreting neutron star magnetospheres have been detected only at X-ray energies and in ~10% of the presently known systems. Here we report the detection of optical and ultraviolet coherent pulsations at the X-ray period of the transient low mass X-ray binary system SAX J1808.4-3658, during an accretion outburst …
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extragalactic radio transients with millisecond duration and extremely high brightness temperature. Very recently, some highly circularly polarized bursts were found in a repeater, FRB 20201124A. The significant circular polarization might be produced by coherent curvature radiation by bunches with the line of sight (LOS) deviating from the bunch central trajectories. In this work, we carry out simulations to study the statistical properties of burst polarization within the framework of coherent curvature radiation by charged bunches in the neutron star magnetosphe…
There is good evidence that electron-positron pair formation is not present in that section of the pulsar open magnetosphere which is the source of coherent radio emission, but the possibility of two-photon pair creation in an outer gap remains. Calculation of transition rates for this process based on measured whole-surface temperatures, combined with a survey of gamma-ray, X-ray and optical luminosities, expressed per primary beam lepton, shows that few Fermi LAT pulsars have significant outer-gap pair creation. For radio-loud pulsars with positive polar-cap corotational charge density and a…
Recent observations of repeating fast radio bursts (FRBs) suggest that some FRBs reside in an environment consistent with that of binary neutron star (BNS) mergers. The bursting rate for repeaters could be very high and the emission site is likely from a magnetosphere. We discuss a hypothesis of producing abundant repeating FRBs in BNS systems. Decades to centuries before a BNS system coalesces, the magnetospheres of the two neutron stars start to interact relentlessly. Abrupt magnetic reconnection accelerates particles, which emit coherent radio waves in bunches via curvature radiation. FRBs …
High brightness temperature radio transients such as pulsars and fast radio bursts require the coherent radiation of particles. The antenna class of coherent radiation models require a large number of charged particles radiating in phase, therefore the particles must be spatially confined and have well-aligned velocities. Given these necessary conditions, we look at the magnetic field induced by the currents associated with coherently emitting accelerated particles and consider the interaction between the radiating particles and the induced magnetic field. We find a maximum luminosity of coher…
Ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are off-nuclear point sources in nearby galaxies with luminosities well exceeding the Eddington limit for stellar-mass objects. It has been recognized after the discovery of pulsating ULXs (PULXs) that a fraction of these sources could be accreting neutron stars in high-mass X-ray binaries (HMXBs) though the majority of ULXs are lacking in coherent pulsations. The earliest stage of some HMXBs may harbor rapidly rotating neutron stars propelling out the matter transferred by the massive companion. The spin-down power transferred by the neutron-star magnetosph…
Pulsar magnetospheres are thought to be filled with electron-positron plasma generated in pair cascades. The driving mechanism of these cascades is the emission of gamma-ray photons and their conversion into pairs via Quantum Electrodynamics (QED) processes. In this work, we present 2D particle-in-cell simulations of pair cascades in pulsar polar caps with realistic magnetic field geometry that include the relevant QED processes from first principles. Our results show that, due to variation of magnetic field curvature across the polar cap, pair production bursts self-consistently develop an in…
We consider electromagnetic interaction and precursor emission of merging neutron stars. Orbital motion of the magnetized neutron stars may revive pair production within the common magnetosphere years before the merger, igniting pulsar-like magnetospheric dynamics. We identify two basic scenarios: (i) only one star is magnetized (1M-DNS scenario) and (ii) both stars are magnetized (2M-DNS scenario). Inductively created electric fields can have component along the total magnetic field (gaps) and/or the electric field may exceed the value of the local magnetic field. The key to the detection is …
This paper explores small-scale departures from force-free electrodynamics around a rotating neutron star, extending our treatment of resistive instability in a quantizing magnetic field. A secondary, Cerenkov instability is identified: relativistic particles flowing through thin current sheets excite propagating charge perturbations that are localized near the sheets. Growth is rapid at wavenumbers below the inverse ambient skin depth $k_{p,\rm ex}$. Small-scale Alfvénic wavepackets are promising sources of coherent curvature radiation. When the group Lorentz factor $γ_{\rm gr} \lesssim (k_{p…
Thornton，{ \it et al.}如果在推断的宇宙学距离上，有极高的亮度温度。这意味着电荷“聚束”的相干发射。我们模拟的发射区作为一个屏幕的偶极辐射共振的频率的观察和计算所需的电荷聚束。从这一点，我们推断出克服静电斥力所需的最小电子能量。与蟹状星云脉冲星的巨脉冲一样，FRB也显示出带状光谱，这些带状光谱可能是等离子体湍流发射的等离子体频率的谐波。如果FRB是相对频繁的银河系事件的对应物，那么这些事件可能会被射电望远镜在其远旁瓣或小偶极子阵列中检测到。
Fast Radio Bursts from Monster Shocks and Flares of Inspiraling Binary Neutron Stars: A Kinetic Model for Double Pulsar
Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences（捷克科学院天文研究所）；University of Potsdam（波茨坦大学）；Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY（德国电子同步加速器）；Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute)（马克斯·普朗克引力物理学研究所（爱因斯坦研究所））；Univ. Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, IPAG（格勒诺布尔阿尔卑斯大学、法国国家科学研究中心、天体物理学与行星学研究所）
