The Synchrotron Emission Mechanism in the Recently Detected Very High Energy Radiation from the Crab Pulsar

Machabeli George, Osmanov Zaza

Published 2009-01-22, updated 2009-08-08Version 4

Interpretation of the recently discovered very high energy (VHE) pulsed emission from the Crab pulsar is presented. By taking into account the fact that Crab pulsar's radiation for the optical and VHE spectrum peak at the same phases, we argue that the source of this broad band emission is spatially localized. It is shown that the only mechanism providing the results of the MAGIC Cherenkov telescope, should be the synchrotron radiation. We find that in the magnetospheric electron-positron plasma, due to the cyclotron instability, the pitch angle becomes non-vanishing, which leads to the efficient synchrotron mechanism, intensifying on the light cylinder lengthscales. We also estimate the VHE radiation spectral index to be equal to -1/2.