Limiting polarization effect—a key link in investigating the mean profiles of radio pulsars

• Published in: Astronomy letters Vol. 36; no. 4; pp. 248 - 259
• Main Authors: Andrianov, A. S., Beskin, V. S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht SP MAIK Nauka/Interperiodica 01.04.2010; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Astronomy; Astrophysics and Astroparticles; Differential equations; Emissions; Magnetic fields; Observations and Techniques; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Polarization; Pulsars; Radio astronomy; Wave propagation; radio pulsars; polarization; neutron stars
• ISSN: 1063-7737; 1562-6873
• DOI: 10.1134/S1063773710040031

Using a well-known method for calculating the propagation of waves in an inhomogeneous medium, we have managed to reduce the problem of wave propagation in pulsar magnetospheres to a system of two ordinary differential equations that allow the polarization characteristics of the radio emission to be quantitatively described for any magnetic field structure and an arbitrary density profile of the outflowing plasma. We confirm that for ordinary pulsars (period P ∼ 1 s, magnetic field B 0 ∼ 10 12 G, particle production multiplicity parameter λ ∼ 10 4 ), the polarization is formed inside the light cylinder at a distance of the order of a thousand neutron star radii. For reasonable magnetic field strengths and plasma densities on the emission propagation path, the degree of circular polarization is found to be ∼5–20%, in good agreement with observations.