Pulsar shade – discovery of inward emission in pulsar magnetosphere

We present the theory of eclipsing a rotating, spatially extended source of directional emission by a central absorber, and apply it to the pulsar magnetosphere. The theory assumes the radially extended inward radio emission along the local direction of magnetic field, and the pulsar as the absorber. Geometry of magnetic field lines of the rotating dipole is favourable for the double eclipse events, which we identify with the double notches observed in pulse profiles of nearby pulsars. For pulsars with large dipole inclinations 70 <∼ α <∼ 110 ◦ the double notches are predicted to occur within a narrow phase range of 20 − 30 before the main radio peak. Application of the theory to PSR B0950+08 establishes it as a nearly orthogonal rotator (α ≃ 75, β ≃ −10) with many pulse components naturally interpreted in terms of the inward radio emission from On leave from Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center, Toruń, Poland