School of Physics Fall Colloquium Series-Dr. Anatoly Spitkovsky

Speaker: Anatoly Spitkovsky (Princeton)

Bio: Anatoly Spitkovsky is a Professor of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University. He received his undergraduate degree in Physics from Caltech and PhD in Physics from the University of California at Berkeley. He was a Chandra postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University before starting on the faculty at Princeton.  His research interests are in theoretical high-energy astrophysics, where he uses numerical simulations to study neutron star magnetospheres and the origin of energetic particles in the cosmos. He is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, a Simons Foundation Investigator in Theoretical Physics, and a recipient of 2023 Bruno Rossi Prize of the American Astronomical Society.  

Title: The inner workings of pulsar magnetospheres

Abstract: Pulsars are rotating magnetized neutron stars that emit repeating pulses of radiation spanning all of the electromagnetic spectrum. 55 years after their discovery more than 2000 pulsars are known, and they have been used as probes of diverse phenomena ranging from the properties of interstellar medium to the predictions of general theory of relativity. Despite great observational successes, our theoretical understanding of how pulsar magnetospheres work is incomplete. Pulsars bring together aspects of classical and quantum electrodynamics, coupled with strongly magnetized plasma physics in curved rotating spacetime of a massive compact object. The nonlinear interplay of these effects makes it a difficult but rewarding problem to study. I will review the status and progress of pulsar modeling, culminating with recent developments in fully kinetic simulations of pulsar magnetospheres. These simulations allow us to find the shape of the magnetosphere and the location of particle acceleration regions, constraining the origin of high energy and radio emission. The pulsar magnetosphere is a prototype for other strongly magnetized astrophysical objects, and I will discuss how the lessons from pulsar modeling can be useful in understanding the physics of black hole magnetospheres and in predicting electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources.