Non-linear electromagnetic waves in magnetosphere of a magnetar

Abstract

We compute electromagnetic wave propagation through the magnetosphere of a magnetar. The magnetosphere is modelled as the quantum electrodynamics vacuum and a cold, strongly magnetized plasma. The background field and electromagnetic waves are treated non-perturbatively and can be arbitrarily strong. This technique is particularly useful for examining non-linear effects in propagating waves. Waves travelling through such a medium typically form shocks; on the other hand we focus on the possible existence of waves that travel without evolving. Therefore, in order to examine the non-linear effects, we make a travelling wave ansatz and numerically explore the resulting wave equations. We discover a class of solutions in a homogeneous plasma which are stabilized against forming shocks by exciting non-orthogonal components which exhibit strong non-linear behaviour. These waves may be an important part of the energy transmission processes near pulsars and magnetars.

Magnetic and electric properties of a quantum vacuum

“…Nonlinear propagation of electromagnetic waves in the magnetosphere of a magnetar, taking into account both the QED vacuum and the magnetized plasma, has been also studied non-perturbatively in [208]. The nonlinear behavior of these electromagnetic waves should play an important role in the energy transmission in pulsars and magnetars.…”

Electromagnetic wave transparency of X mode in strongly magnetized plasma

“…magnetic field generation via Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, counter-streaming electron flows etc 8 – 10 ). These magnetic fields can be very strong, for instance, near pulsars and magnetars they could be of the order of Giga Teslas 11 – 13 and a record magnetic field of 1.2 KT has been achieved in the laboratory 7 . It is thus important to study interaction of an electromagnetic wave with a strongly magnetized plasma for both laboratory as well as astrophysical context 1 , 2 14 – 16 .…”

Light bending by nonlinear electrodynamics under strong electric and magnetic field

“…Another example of light bending by a magnetic field is when a photon passes the magnetosphere of a magnetized neutron star with extremely strong magnetic field of the order 10 8 − 10 11 T. Since neutron stars have a very dense magnetosphere, only high energy photons may be observable. Recently the vacuum effect of non-linear electrodynamics under strong magnetic field by magnetized stars has been studied widely [9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”