Radiation properties of pulsar magnetospheres: observation, theory, and experiment

Summary form only given. The accumulated body of observational data from pulsar sources puts constraints on models that seek to explain their periodic radiation. This paper reviews this data, reports on a VLA search for haloes predicted by an early model, and reinvestigates a magnetospheric disk-field-aligned-current transmission line system as the origin of the observed radiation, with external wave excitation by as yet an unexplained source. Three dimensional, fully electromagnetic particle-in-cell simulations of the pulsar surface and magnetosphere are used to explore the waveshape and polarization properties of the observed radiation. The multipulse characteristic is consistent with existence of a wave resonator at the lower pulsar ´ionospheric´ boundary.