Pulsar Coherent Radio Emission from Solitons: Average Emission Properties

Abstract Observations have established that coherent radio emission from pulsars arises at a few hundred kilometers above the stellar surface. Recent polarization studies have further demonstrated that plasma instabilities are necessary for charge bunching that gives rise to coherent emission. The formation of charged solitons in the electron–positron plasma is the only known bunching mechanism that can be realized at these heights. More than five decades of observations have revealed a number of emission features that should emerge from any valid radio emission mechanism. We have carried out numerical calculations to find the features of average emission from curvature radiation due to charged solitons. The characteristic curvature radiation spectrum has been updated from the well-known one-dimensional dependence to a general two-dimensional form, and the contribution from each soliton along the observer’s line of sight (LOS) has been added to reproduce the pulsar emission. The outflowing plasma is formed by sparking discharges above the stellar surface that are located within concentric rings resembling the core–cone emission beam, and uniform distribution of solitons along any LOS has been assumed. The observed effects of radius-to-frequency mapping, where the lower-frequency emission originates from higher altitudes, are seen in this setup. The power-law spectrum and relative steepening of the core spectra with respect to the cones also emerge. The estimated polarization position angle reflects the geometrical configuration of pulsars as expected. These studies demonstrate the efficacy of coherent curvature radiation from charged solitons to reproduce the average observational features of pulsars.