Cyclotron absorption in rotating pulsar magnetospheres

Abstract

Cyclotron absorption in relativistic pulsar plasma is discussed in detail. The effect of cyclotron absorption on pulsar radio emission is examined, including the corotation of the plasma with the pulsar. The absorption coefficients for the two escaping modes, the X and LO modes, are derived and used to evaluate numerically the absorption profile across the emission beam. As a result of the rotation, the absorption is generally not axially symmetric across the beam, which can lead to potentially observable features of the pulse profile.