Particle-acceleration location and mechanism in pulsar magnetospheres

Determine where and how particles are accelerated in the magnetospheres of rotation-powered pulsars.

Background

The paper discusses pulsed emission from rotation-powered pulsars across radio, optical, X-ray, and gamma-ray wavelengths. These emissions are attributed to particles accelerated by strong electromagnetic fields in pulsar magnetospheres, but the specific acceleration site and physical mechanism remain unresolved. Identifying them is important for distinguishing competing emission models, including the outer-gap and current-sheet models, which can reproduce similar observed light-curve features.