A Model for Polarization of Pulsar Radiation

Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics

Scientific paper

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Pulsars, Polarization, Curvature Radiation

Scientific paper

We discuss single-pulse polarization characteristics of pulsar radiation. We use the Ruderman & Sutherland (1975) spark model as a source of subpulse emission and curvature radiation as the elementary mechanism of pulsar radiation. We also consider a proper geometry of pulsar emission. We demonstrate that numerical simulations reproduce all polarization characteristics observed in single pulses. These characteristics result from the properties of single-particle curvature radiation integrated over a large number of independent sources, interaction of this radiation with electron-positron plasma within a sub- pulse-producing column and a geometry determining the gradient of the Radhakrishnan & Cooke (1969) mean position angle swing. We argue that strong, sense-reversing circular polarization is a natural feature of curvature radiation. A significant circular polarization can be observed at a particular subpulse phase if the gradient of the subpulse envelope is steep enough to preserve the net circular polarization from adjacent sources. We also demonstrate that deviations of single pulse position angle from the average curve are caused by joint propagation and geometrical effects. In the case of the shallow Radhakrishnan and Cooke curve a swing across a subpulse should pass through the average curve at or near the subpulse peak. In the case of steep S-shaped mean position angle curves, an exactly orthogonal jump in subpulse swings can occur. The depolarization of linearly polarized component is due to incoherent superposition of a large number of elementary contributions from different field line planes of the pulsar magnetic field.

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