Physical processes in eclipsing pulsars: Eclipse mechanisms and diagnostics

Abstract

We investigate how the radio emission of a pulsar interacts with plasma derived from a stellar companion. Various physical mechanisms that can cause radio pulse eclipse are discussed, and predictions are made for the polarization properties of the emergent radio wave. We consider eclipses by a wind from the stellar companion, by a stellar magnetosphere, or by material entrained in the pulsar wind. Eclipses due to refraction require either a relatively high plasma density or a sharp edge to the plasma distribution. The conditions that must prevail for free-free absorption to be effective in eclipsing a radio beam are also outlined. Pulse smearing may be important at higher frequencies; related eclipse mechanisms include pulse spreading due to a rapidly changing electron column, and scattering by Langmuir turbulence. The high brightness temperature radio beam can generate its own plasma turbulence via a number of nonlinear parametric instabilities, such as the instability associated with stimulated Raman scattering. When the plasma turbulence is heavily damped, the radio bean can still undergo induced Compton scattering. Stimulated scattering effects such as these are very sensitive to the presence of narrow-band substructure in the pulsar radio emission. Finally, we consider the possibility that plasma derived from a stellar companion may mix with the relativistic pulsar wind and cause cyclotron absorption at low radio frequencies. Even if the cyclotron optical depth is small, fluctuations in the emergent polarization of the radio beam on the timescale of a few seconds are a very sensitive probe of the spatial structure of the magnetic field in the pulsar wind. The current observational properties of two known eclipsing pulsar systems, PSR 1957+20 and PSR 1744-24A, are used to construct tentative eclipse models. The favored model for PSR 1957+20 is cyclotron or synchrotron absorption by plasma embedded in the pulsar wind combined with pulse smearing at high frequency, and the favored model for PSR 1744-24A is backscattering off plasma turbulence generated by the stimulated Raman scattering parametric instability. Pulsar eclipses promise to provide a good diagnostic of pulsar winds and possible of the pulse emission mechanism.