The termination shock in a striped pulsar wind Original Research Article

I present observational and theoretical evidence that most of the pulsar spin-down energy is transferred away as a striped pulsar wind and that this energy is released by annihilation of the alternating magnetic field at the pulsar wind termination shock. One-dimensional particle-in-cells (PIC) simulations show that the alternating fields do annihilate at the termination shock in a striped wind. The particle acceleration should be studied in multidimensional simulations. As a first step, I simulated driven annihilation of alternating fields undergoing compression by an external force. It is shown that that in the course of this process, a particle distribution function is formed, which resembles that observed in plerions.