Aurora on pulsar planets

Proceedings of RAGtime / Aurora on pulsar planets

Aurora on pulsar planets

Authors

Miljenko Čemeljić and Jacobo Varela

Abstract

Exoplanets were long anticipated, but the discovery of the first such planet in an orbit around a pulsar came as a surprise. The only method for the detection of such planets is the precise timing method, relying on pulsars being precise clocks. In analogy with auroral emission from planets in our solar system, we suggest that planets around pulsars could also exhibit auroras. This would provide an additional method for observation of pulsar planets and conditions in the pulsar wind through emissions in visible wavelength (aurora) and cyclotron radiation in radio wavelengths. We present the first setup for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of star-planet magnetospheric interaction for pulsar planets and the preliminary results.

Keywords

Magnetohydrodynamics – reconnection – energy dissipation – resistivity – numerical simulations – PLUTO – KORAL

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References

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