Abstract
Aims. Global particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations of pulsar magnetospheres are performed with volume-, surface-, and pair-production-based plasma injection schemes to systematically investigate the transition between electrosphere and force-free pulsar magnetospheric regimes. Methods. We present a new extension of the PIC code OSIRIS that can be used to model pulsar magnetospheres with a two-dimensional axisymmetric spherical grid. The subalgorithms of the code and thorough benchmarks are presented in detail, including a new first-order current deposition scheme that conserves charge to machine precision. Results. We show that all plasma injection schemes produce a range of magnetospheric regimes. Active solutions can be obtained with surface and volume injection schemes when using artificially large plasma-injection rates, and with pair-production-based plasma injection for sufficiently large separation between kinematic and pair-production energy scales.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | A229 |
Journal | Astronomy and Astrophysics |
Volume | 690 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1 2024 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Space and Planetary Science
Keywords
- methods: numerical
- pulsars: general
- relativistic processes