Toroidal Flow in Axisymmetric Pulsar Magnetospheres

Abstract

This paper deals with dissipation-free toroidal flow in steadily-rotating axisymmetric pulsar magnetospheres; for each species, relativistic inertia is balanced by the Lorentz force. A complete integral for such flows is obtained; precise corotation with the star corresponds to a singular solution. Except for the case of corotation, all quantities follow from a single scalar quantity, which is determined by the Stokes stream function of the magnetic field. A fundamental differential equation for the problem is obtained. Particular attention is paid to flows that tend toward corotation as the symmetry axis is approached, and implications of the results for model building are discussed.