On the mystery of the interpulse shift in the Crab pulsar

Victor M. Kontorovich, Sergii V. Trofymenko

Published 2017-07-05Version 1

A new mechanism of radiation emission in the polar gap of a pulsar is proposed. It is the curvature radiation which is emitted by positrons moving toward the surface of the neutron star along magnetic field lines and reflects from the surface. Such radiation interferes with transition radiation emitted from the neutron star when positrons hit the surface. It is shown that the proposed mechanism may be applicable for explanation of the mystery of the interpulse shift in the Crab pulsar at high frequencies discovered by Moffett and Hankins twenty years ago.