Coherent Mechanisms of Pulsar Radio Emission

Relativistic plasma masers operating on the anomalous cyclotron-Cherenkov resonance ω − k || υ || + ω B / ϒ res = 0 and the Cherenkov-drift resonance ω − k || υ || − k x / u d = 0, are capable of explaining the main observational characteristics of pulsar radio emission. Both electromagnetic instabilities are due to the interaction of the fast particles from the primary beam and from the tail of the secondary pairs distribution with the normal modes of a strongly magnetized one-dimensional electron-positron plasma. In a typical pulsar both resonances occur in the outer parts of magnetosphere at r res ≈ 10 9 cm.