The Stability of Wave-like Pulsar Winds

Pulsars are heavy, compact, rapidly rotating stars, surrounded by intense electric and magnetic fields. Plasma near the pulsar surface is accelerated away from the pulsar by the fields to form a pulsar wind. The accepted, steady-state pulsar wind model does not correctly predict the observed energy transport in the wind. The wind contains both an electromagnetic and a kinetic energy component. Near the pulsar, the electromagnetic component is believed to dominate the energy flow. Steady-state wind theory predicts that the electromagnetic component will also dominate at large distances from the pulsar, where the wind slams into the surrounding nebula. However, observations show that the opposite is true. This inconsistency is known as the s paradox.