Wave dispersion near cyclotron resonance in pulsar plasmas

Wave dispersion in a counterstreaming, cold, magnetized, electron-positron plasma

The dispersion equation is analyzed for waves in a strongly magnetized, electron-positron plasma in which counterstreaming electrons are cold in their respective rest frames. For propagation parallel to the magnetic field the dispersion equation factorizes into equations for two longitudinal modes and four transverse modes. Instabilities occur in both longitudinal and transverse modes, with the most notable being at low wave numbers where a longitudinal branch has purely imaginary frequency. For oblique propagation at small angles, the modes reconnect at points where the parallel modes intersect, either deviating away from each another, or being separated by a pair of complex modes. In addition, intrinsically oblique branches of the dispersion equation appear. The results are applied to an oscillating model for a pulsar magnetosphere, in which the oscillations are purely temporal with a frequency well below relevant wave frequencies, and in which the counterstreaming becomes highly relativistic. We assume that the medium may be treated as time stationary in treating the wave dispersion and wave growth. The wave properties, including the wave frequency, vary periodically with the phase of the oscillations. The fastest growing instability is when the counterstreaming is nonrelativistic or mildly relativistic. A given wave can experience bursts of growth over many oscillations. Mode coupling associated with the cyclotron resonance may be effective in generating the observed orthogonally polarized modes at phases of the oscillation where the (relativistic) cyclotron and wave frequencies are comparable.