Magnetars, the likely sources of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), produce both steady highly relativistic magnetized winds, and occasional ejection events. We demonstrate that the requirement of conservation of the magnetic flux dominates the overall dynami
cs of magnetic explosions. This is missed in conventional hydrodynamic models of the ejections as expanding shell with parametrically added magnetic field, as well as one-dimensional models of magnetic disturbances. Most of the initial free energy of an explosion is actually spent on stretching its own internal magnetic field, while doing minimal $pdV$ work against the surrounding. Magnetic explosions from magnetars come into force balance with the pre-flares wind close to the light cylinder. They are then advected quietly with the wind, or propagate as electromagnetic disturbances. No powerful shock waves are generated in the wind.
We discuss a novel mechanism of axion production during scattering of Alfven waves by a fast moving Schwarzschild black holes. The process couples classical macroscopic objects, and effectively large amplitude electromagnetic (EM) waves, to microscop
ic axions. The key ingredient is that the motion of a black hole (BH) across magnetic field creates classical non-zero second Poincare invariant, the electromagnetic anomaly (Lyutikov 2011). In the case of magnetized plasma supporting Alfven wave, it is the fluctuating component of the magnetic field that contributes to the anomaly: for sufficiency small BH moving with the super-Alfvenic velocity the plasma does not have enough time to screen the parallel electric field. This creates time-dependent $ {bf E} cdot {bf B} eq 0$, and production of axions via the axion-EM coupling.
We discuss constraints that the observed brightness temperatures impose on coherent processes in pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), and in particular on the hypothesis of coherent curvature emission by bunches. We estimate the peak brightness temp
erature that a bunch of charge $Ze$ can produce via synchrotron and/or curvature emission as $k_B T sim (Z e)^2/lambda$, where $lambda$ is the typical emitted wavelength. We demonstrate that the bunchs electrostatic energy required to produce observed brightness temperature is prohibitively high, of the order of the total {it bulk } energy. We compare corresponding requirements for the Free Electron Laser mechanism (Lyutikov 2021) and find that in that case the constraints are much easier satisfied.
We consider magnetospheric structure of rotating neutron stars with internally twisted axisymmetric magnetic fields. The twist-induced and rotation-induced toroidal magnetic fields align/counter-align in different hemispheres. Using analytical and nu
merical calculations (with PHAEDRA code) we show that as a result the North-South symmetry is broken: the magnetosphere and the wind become angled, of conical shape. Angling of the magnetosphere affects the spindown (making it smaller for mild twists), makes the return current split unequally at the Y-point, produces anisotropic wind and linear acceleration that may dominate over gravitational acceleration in the Galactic potential and give a total kick up to $sim 100$ km/s. We also consider analytically the structure of the Y-point in the twisted magnetosphere, and provide estimate of the internal twist beyond which no stable solutions exist: over-twisted magnetospheres must produce plasma ejection events.
We develop a model of the generation of coherent radio emission in the Crab pulsar, magnetars and Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). Emission is produced by a reconnection-generated beam of particles via a variant of Free Electron Laser (FEL) mechanism, opera
ting in a weakly-turbulent, guide-field dominated plasma. We first consider nonlinear Thomson scattering in a guide-field dominated regime, and apply to model to explain emission bands observed in Crab pulsar and in Fast Radio Bursts. We consider particle motion in a combined fields of the electromagnetic wave and thee lectromagnetic (Alfvenic) wiggler. Charge bunches, created via a ponderomotive force, Compton/Raman scatter the wiggler field coherently. The model is both robust to the underlying plasma parameters and succeeds in reproducing a number of subtle observed features: (i) emission frequencies depend mostly on the length $lambda_t$ of turbulence and the Lorentz factor of the reconnection generated beam, $omega sim gamma_b^2 ( c/lambda_t) $ - it is independent of the absolute value of the underlying magnetic field. (ii) The model explains both broadband emission and the presence of emission stripes, including multiple stripes observed in the High Frequency Interpulse of the Crab pulsar. (iii) The model reproduces correlated polarization properties: presence of narrow emission bands in the spectrum favors linear polarization, while broadband emission can have arbitrary polarization. (iv) The mechanism is robust to the momentum spread of the particle in the beam. We also discuss a model of wigglers as non-linear force-free Alfven solitons (light darts).
The compact object in the interacting binary AR Sco has widely been presumed to be a rapidly rotating, magnetized white dwarf (WD), but it has never been detected directly. Isolating its spectrum has proven difficult because the spin-down of the WD g
enerates pulsed synchrotron radiation that far outshines the WDs photosphere. As a result, a previous study of AR Sco was unable to detect the WD in the averaged far-ultraviolet spectrum from a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observation. In an effort to unveil the WDs spectrum, we reanalyze these HST observations by calculating the average spectrum in the troughs between synchrotron pulses. We identify weak spectral features from the previously unseen WD and estimate its surface temperature to be 11500$pm$500K. Additionally, during the synchrotron pulses, we detect broad Lyman-$alpha$ absorption consistent with hot WD spectral models. We infer the presence of a pair of hotspots, with temperatures between 23000K and 28000K, near the magnetic poles of the WD. As the WD is not expected to be accreting from its companion, we describe two possible mechanisms for heating the magnetic poles. The Lyman-$alpha$ absorption of the hotspots appears relatively undistorted by Zeeman splitting, constraining the WDs field strength to be 100 MG, but the data are insufficient to search for the subtle Zeeman splits expected at lower field strengths.
Afterglows of gamma-ray bursts often show flares, plateaus, and sudden intensity drops: these temporal features are difficult to explain as coming from the forward shock. We calculate radiative properties of early GRB afterglows with the dominant con
tribution from the reverse shock (RS) propagating in an ultra-relativistic (pulsar-like) wind produced by the long-lasting central engine. RS emission occurs in the fast cooling regime -- this ensures high radiative efficiency and allows fast intensity variations. We demonstrate that: (i) mild wind power, of the order of $sim 10^{46}$ erg s$^{-1}$, can reproduce the afterglows plateau phase; (ii) termination of the wind can produce sudden steep decays; (iii) mild variations in the wind luminosity can produce short-duration afterglow flares.
We discuss coherent free electron laser (FEL) operating during explosive reconnection events in magnetized pair plasma of magnetar magnetospheres. The model explains many salient features of Fast Radio Bursts/magnetars radio emission: temporal coinci
dence of radio and high energy bursts, high efficiency of conversion of plasma kinetic energy into coherent radiation, presence of variable, narrow-band emission features drifting down in frequency, high degree of linear polarization. The model relies on magnetar-specific drifting $e^pm$ plasma components (which generate wiggler field due to the development of the firehose instability) and the presence of reconnection-generated particle beam with mild Lorentz factor of $gamma_b sim$ few hundred.
We construct a turbulent model of the Crab Nebulas non-thermal emission. The present model resolves a number of long-standing problems of the Kennel-Coroniti (1984) model: (i) the sigma problem; (ii) the hard spectrum of radio electrons; (iii) the hi
gh peak energy of gamma-ray flares; (iv) and the spacial evolution of the infrared (IR) emission. The Nebula contains two populations of injected particles: Component-I accelerated at the wind termination shock via Fermi-I mechanism, and Component-II accelerated in reconnecting turbulence in highly magnetized ($sigma$ $gg 1$) plasma in the central part of the Crab Nebula. The reconnecting turbulence Component-II extends from radio to gamma rays: it accelerate radio electrons with a hard spectrum, destroy the large scale magnetic flux (and thus resolves the sigma-problem), and occasionally produces gamma-ray flares (from the largest scale reconnection events). The model reproduces the broad-band spectrum of the Crab Nebula, from low-frequency synchrotron emission in radio to inverse-Compton emission at TeV energies, as well as spatially resolved evolution of the spectral indices in IR and optical bands.
Lyutikov (2002) predicted radio emission from soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) during their bursting activity. Detection of a Mega-Jansky radio burst in temporal coincidence with high energy bursts from a Galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 confirms that
prediction. Similarity of this radio event with Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) suggests that FRBs are produced within magnetar magnetospheres. We demonstrate that SGR 1935+2154 satisfies the previously derived constraints on the physical parameters at the FRBs loci. Coherent radio emission is generated in the inner parts of the magnetosphere at $r< 100 R_{rm NS}$. The radio emission is produced by the yet unidentified plasma emission process, occurring during the initial stages of reconnection events.
