Towards a theory of extremely intermittent pulsars I: Does something orbits PSR B1931 + 24 ?

We investigate whether one or many companions are orbiting the extremely intermittent pulsar PSR B1931+24. We constrained our analysis on previous observations of eight fundamental properties of PSR B1931+24. The most puzzling properties are the intermittent nature of the pulsar's activity, with active and quiet phases that alternate quasi-periodically; the variation of the slowing-down rate of its period between active and quiet phases; and because there are no timing residuals, it is highly unlikely that the pulsar has a massive companion. Here, we examine the effects that one putative companion immersed in the magnetospheric plasma or the wind of the pulsar might have, as well as the associated electric current distribution. We analysed several possibilities for the distance and orbit of this hypothetical companion and the nature of its interaction with the neutron star. We show that if the quasi-periodic behaviour of PSR B1931+24 was caused by a companion orbiting the star with a period of 35 or 70 days, the radio emissions, usually considered to be those of the pulsar would in that specific case be emitted in the companion's environment. We analysed four possible configurations and conclude that none of them would explain the whole set of peculiar properties of PSR 1931+24. We furthermore considered a period 70 days for the precession of the periastron associated to an orbit very close to the neutron star. This hypothesis is analysed in a companion paper.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astrnomy and Astrophysic

Electron-positron pair production by gamma rays in an anisotropic flux of soft photons, and application to pulsar polar caps

Electron-positron pair production by collision of photons is investigated in view of application to pulsar physics. We compute the absorption rate of individual gamma-ray photons by an arbitrary anisotropic distribution of softer photons, and the energy and angular spectrum of the outgoing leptons. We work analytically within the approximation that 1 mc 2 /E > /E, with E and the gamma-ray and soft-photon maximum energy and mc 2 the electron mass energy. We give results at leading order in these small parameters. For practical purposes, we provide expressions in the form of Laurent series which give correct reaction rates in the isotropic case within an average error of $\sim$ 7%. We apply this formalism to gamma rays flying downward or upward from a hot neutron star thermally radiating at a uniform temperature of 10 6 K. Other temperatures can be easily deduced using the relevant scaling laws. We find differences in absorption between these two extreme directions of almost two orders of magnitude, much larger than our error estimate. The magnetosphere appears completely opaque to downward gamma rays while there are up to $\sim$ 10% chances of absorbing an upward gamma ray. We provide energy and angular spectra for both upward and downward gamma rays. Energy spectra show a typical double peak, with larger separation at larger gamma-ray energies. Angular spectra are very narrow, with an opening angle ranging from 10 --3 to 10 --7 radians with increasing gamma-ray energies

Towards a theory of extremely intermittent pulsars II: Asteroids at a close distance

We investigate whether there may be one or many companions orbiting at close distance to the light cylinder around the extremely intermittent pulsars PSR B1931+24 and PSR J1841-0500. These pulsars, behaving in a standard way when they are active, also "switch off" for durations of several days, during which their magnetospheric activity is interrupted or reduced. We constrained our analysis on eight fundamental properties of PSR B1931+24 that summarise the observations. We considered that the disruption/activation of the magnetospheric activity would be caused by the direct interaction of the star with the Alfv\'en wings emanating from the companions. We also considered the recurrence period of 70 days to be the period of precession of the periastron of the companions orbit. We analysed in which way the time scale of the "on/off" pseudo-cycle would be conditioned by the precession of the periastron and not by the orbital time scale, and we derived a set of orbital constraints that we solved. We then compared the model, based on PSR 1931+24, with the known properties of PSR 1841+0500. We conclude that PSR B1931+24 may be surrounded at a close distance to the star by a stream of small bodies of kilometric or sub-kilometric sizes that could originate from the tidal disruption of a body of moderate size that fell at a close distance to the neutron star on an initially very eccentric orbit. This scenario is also compatible with the properties of PSR J1841-0500, although the properties of PSR J1841-0500 are, by now, less constrained. These results raise new questions. Why are the asteroids not yet evaporated ? What kind of interaction can explain the disruption of the magnetospheric activity ? These questions are the object of two papers in preparation that will complete the present analysis.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

Quantum theory of curvature and synchro-curvature radiation in a strong and curved magnetic field, and applications to neutron star magnetospheres

In a previous paper, we derived the quantum states of a Dirac particle in a circular, intense magnetic field in the limit of low momentum perpendicular to the field with the purpose of giving a quantum description of the trajectory of an electron, or a positron, in a typical pulsar or magnetar magnetosphere. Here we continue this work by computing the radiation resulting from transitions between these states. This leads to derive from first principles a quantum theory of the so-called curvature and synchro-curvature radiations relevant for rotating neutron-star magnetospheres. We find that, within the approximation of an infinitely confined wave-function around the magnetic field and in the continuous energy-level limit, classical curvature radiation can be recovered in a fully consistent way. Further we introduce discrete transitions to account for the change of momentum perpendicular to the field and derive expressions for what we call quantum synchro-curvature radiation. Additionally, we express deconfinement and quantum recoil corrections

Last orbits of binary black holes

Binary black hole systems in the pre-coalescence stage are numerically constructed by demanding that the associated spacetime admits a helical Killing vector. Comparison with third order post-Newtonian calculations indicates a rather good agreement until the innermost stable circular orbit.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, invited talk at Journees Relativistes 2001, to appear in International Journal of Modern Physics

General relativistic neutrino transport using spectral methods

We present a new code, Lorene's Ghost (for Lorene's gravitational handling of spectral transport) developed to treat the problem of neutrino transport in supernovae with the use of spectral methods. First, we derive the expression for the nonrelativistic Liouville operator in doubly spherical coordinates (r, theta, phi, epsilon, Theta, Phi)$, and further its general relativistic counterpart. We use the 3 + 1 formalism with the conformally flat approximation for the spatial metric, to express the Liouville operator in the Eulerian frame. Our formulation does not use any approximations when dealing with the angular arguments (theta, phi, Theta, Phi), and is fully energy-dependent. This approach is implemented in a spherical shell, using either Chebyshev polynomials or Fourier series as decomposition bases. It is here restricted to simplified collision terms (isoenergetic scattering) and to the case of a static fluid. We finish this paper by presenting test results using basic configurations, including general relativistic ones in the Schwarzschild metric, in order to demonstrate the convergence properties, the conservation of particle number and correct treatment of some general-relativistic effects of our code. The use of spectral methods enables to run our test cases in a six-dimensional setting on a single processor.Comment: match published versio

Towards a theory of extremely intermittent pulsars II: Asteroids at a close distance

Accepted for publication in Astronomy and AstrophysicsWe investigate whether there may be one or many companions orbiting at close distance to the light cylinder around the extremely intermittent pulsars PSR B1931+24 and PSR J1841-0500. These pulsars, behaving in a standard way when they are active, also ''switch off'' for durations of several days, during which their magnetospheric activity is interrupted or reduced. We constrained our analysis on eight fundamental properties of PSR B1931+24 that summarise the observations. We considered that the disruption/activation of the magnetospheric activity would be caused by the direct interaction of the star with the Alfvén wings emanating from the companions. We also considered the recurrence period of 70 days to be the period of precession of the periastron of the companions orbit. We analysed in which way the time scale of the ''on/off'' pseudo-cycle would be conditioned by the precession of the periastron and not by the orbital time scale, and we derived a set of orbital constraints that we solved. We then compared the model, based on PSR 1931+24, with the known properties of PSR 1841+0500. We conclude that PSR B1931+24 may be surrounded at a close distance to the star by a stream of small bodies of kilometric or sub-kilometric sizes that could originate from the tidal disruption of a body of moderate size that fell at a close distance to the neutron star on an initially very eccentric orbit. This scenario is also compatible with the properties of PSR J1841-0500, although the properties of PSR J1841-0500 are, by now, less constrained. These results raise new questions. Why are the asteroids not yet evaporated ? What kind of interaction can explain the disruption of the magnetospheric activity ? These questions are the object of two papers in preparation that will complete the present analysis