Plasma processes in pulsar magnetospheres and eclipsing binary pulsar systems

Abstract

Plasma processes that may be responsible for pulsar radio emission and for eclipses observed for binary pulsars are discussed. High brightness temperature of pulsar radio emission implies that the radiation mechanism must be coherent. Several emission mechanisms are discussed. The high brightness temperature of radio emission also implies that nonlinear effect on wave propagation through pulsar magnetospheric plasmas is important and may result in radio pulse microstructure or cause fluctuation in dispersion measure. The discovery of eclipsing binary pulsars provides us with an opportunity to study nonlinear wave-wave interactions in electron-ion plasmas in the winds (or magnetospheres) of companion stars.