Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-jwnkl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-09T15:16:08.609Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Singularities in a Relativistic Pulsar Wind

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Jianke Li*
Affiliation:
ANU Astrophysical Theory Centre, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science & the Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories, Australian National University, ACT 0200, Australia
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The nature of a singularity in a cool, gravitation-free axisymmetrical, relativistic, steady pulsar wind is further investigated, in line with the recent counter-argument of Ardavan (1995, hereafter A95) that the pure Alfvén ‘singularity’ has an equal importance to the Alfvén singularity if one defines the singularity via a quadratic form rather than using the ratio as adopted by Li & Melrose (1994). The pure Alfvénic point in A95 coincides with the proposed characteristic point through which a continuous wind will meet the star and infinity. However, we find that the critical point as implied in the quadratic form is in fact the intermediate point (Ardavan 1979), but not the pure Alfvénic point. Thus the analysis of A95 does not indicate any significance of the pure Alfvénic point. We also demonstrate that the intermediate point which appears in the quadratic form of A95 is not genuine.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1998

References

Ardavan, H. 1979, MNRAS, 189, 397 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ardavan, H. 1995, MNRAS, 273, 1129 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Camenzind, M. 1986, A&A, 162, 32 Google Scholar
Goldreich, P., & Julian, W. H. 1969, ApJ, 157, 869 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldreich, P., & Julian, W. H. 1970, ApJ, 160, 971 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennel, C. F., Fujimura, F. S., & Okamoto, I. 1983, J. Astrophys. Geophys. Fluid Dyn., 26, 147 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, J., & Melrose, D. B. 1994, MNRAS, 270, 721 Google Scholar
Mestel, L. 1968, MNRAS, 138, 359 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mestel, L. 1971, Nature, 233, 149 Google Scholar
Mestel, L., & Shibata, S. 1994, MNRAS, 271, 621 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michel, F. C. 1969, ApJ, 158, 727 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okamoto, I. 1975, MNRAS, 173, 357 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Okamoto, I. 1978, MNRAS, 185, 69 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruderman, M. A., & Sutherland, P. G. 1975, ApJ, 196, 51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sturrock, P. A. 1971, ApJ, 164, 529 CrossRefGoogle Scholar