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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016
It is assumed that pulsars are rotating neutron stars surrounded by a strong dipolar magnetic field, the dipole axis being inclined with respect to the rotation axis. It is further assumed that the intense low frequency electromagnetic waves generated under such circumstances can indeed propagate. It can then be shown that charged particles interacting with such outgoing spherical waves are very efficiently accelerated to relativistic energies. During the acceleration which is almost instantaneous the particles emit a short duration pulse which resembles the observed emission characteristics of pulsars.