Speaker
Dr
Andrey Timokhin
(NASA/GSFC)
Description
Pulsars are among the most prominent gamma-ray sources observed by
Fermi. Despite the wealth of observational information and considerable efforts
of theorists we still do not know their exact emission mechanism(s). However, it
is widely agreed upon than pulsar activity is intimately connected to the
copious generation of electron-positron pairs in pulsar magnetosphere; a rapidly
rotating isolated neutron star is active as a pulsar only as long as it can
create pairs. The density of this pair plasma certainly affects the emission
mechanism(s), wave propagation in the magnetosphere as well as emission
properties of PWNe. Here I briefly overview the most recent progress in
theoretical studies of pair creation in pulsar magnetospheres and report on the
results of pulsar pair cascades modeling based on self-consistent numerical
simulations. I discuss the implication of these results for the gamma-ray
emission properties of pulsars and possible emission mechanisms responsible for
pulsar gamma ray emission.
Primary author
Dr
Andrey Timokhin
(NASA/GSFC)
