On the Nature of Part-Time Radio Pulsars

Abstract

The recent discovery of rotating radio transients and the quasi-periodicity of pulsar activity in the radio pulsar PSR B1931$+$24 has challenged the conventional theory of radio pulsar emission. Here we suggest that these phenomena could be due to the interaction between the neutron star magnetosphere and the surrounding debris disk. The pattern of pulsar emission depends on whether the disk can penetrate the light cylinder and efficiently quench the processes of particle production and acceleration inside the magnetospheric gap. A precessing disk may naturally account for the switch-on/off behavior in PSR B1931$+$24.