Description
QED effects in high B-field environments (10^9 T) are vital in understanding the possible source(s) of radio emissions from observed pulsars. Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs), a subclass of radio pulsars, exhibit intermittent radio emissions whereby a pulsar is capable of temporary radio emission cessation over tens/hundreds of expected emission measurements.
In this paper the pulsar radiation process is modelled holistically for the first time, showing how the pair-plasma environment created by photon absorption influences the synchrotron radiation process that gives rise to those very photons. We propose that these processes – photon production, and pair production, are connected by a feedback loop that underpins the radiation output from pulsars via fluctuations of the magnetic field caused by the plasma response to pair augmentation.
The currents produced by pair production cause magnetic field perturbations, which in turn affect the synchrotron emission from ultra-energetic electrons which is the source of the pair-creating photons. Modelling this feedback loop requires incorporating the QED cross-sections for each process within an overall plasma description. At landau resonances, j=k=1, pair densities of 10^31 are capa-ble of 10^2 order changes in the photon absorption coefficients indicating a central role for plasma modes in emission mechanisms from pulsar sources.