Events

Research Overview: https://umdphysics.umd.edu/people/faculty/current/item/1893-sashaph.html

"Pulsar Magnetospheres and Their Radiation"

Mal Ruderman's legacy in the physics of neutron stars is enormous, and many questions he first formulated remain unanswered. In this talk, I will review recent progress in understanding the complex multi-scale physics of neutron star magnetospheres through the lens of first-principles numerical simulations. I will highlight pair production discharges near the stellar surface and radiative magnetic reconnection near and beyond the light cylinder. I will extensively discuss their role in powering the multi-wavelength non-thermal radiation of pulsars, which spans almost 20 decades in photon energy, from enigmatic coherent radio waves to recently detected 20TeV emission in Vela.