Behavior of the Position and Ellipticity Angles at Polarization Mode Transitions in Pulsar Radio Emission

Abstract Polarization observations of radio pulsars show that abrupt transitions in the polarization vector’s position angle can be accompanied by large excursions in the vector’s ellipticity angle, suggesting the vector passes near the right or left circular pole of the Poincaré sphere. The behavior of the angles can be explained by a transition in dominance of the orthogonal polarization modes or a vector rotation caused by a change in the phase difference between the modes. Four polarization models are examined to quantify and understand the behavior of the angles at a mode transition: coherent polarization modes, partially coherent modes, incoherent modes with nonorthogonal polarization vectors, and incoherent orthogonal modes with an elliptically polarized emission component. In all four models, the trajectory of the mode transition on the Poincaré sphere follows the geodesic that connects the orientations of the mode polarization vectors. The results from the models can be similar, indicating that the interpretation of an observed transition within the context of a particular model is not necessarily unique. The polarization fraction of the emission and the average ellipticity angle depend upon the statistical character of the mode intensity fluctuations. The polarization fraction increases as the fluctuations increase. The excursion in ellipticity angle can be large when the mode intensities are quasi-stable and is suppressed when the intensity fluctuations are large.