Paper detail

Do double features in averaged pulsar profiles decipher the nature of their radio emission?

An interesting paper has recently been published claiming that the long-sought Rosetta Stone needed to decipher the nature of pulsar radio emission has been finally identified as the double features in averaged pulsar profiles. The authors argue that highly symmetric bifurcated features are produced by a split-fan beams of extraordinary-mode curvature radiation emitted by thin microscopic streams of magnetospheric plasma conducted by a very narrow bundle of magnetic field lines. We examined arguments leading to these intriguing conclusions and found a number of flaws. At least one of them is fatal, namely there is not enough available energy within such thin microscopic plasma streams. Using an elementary pulsar physics we show that if the stream is so thin that its emission can reveal the signatures of elementary radiation mechanism, then the energy deficit tends to be severe and reaches a few to several orders of magnitude (depending on the actual efficiency of converting the available kinetic energy of relativistic charged particles into the coherent radio emission). We are certain that the answer to the question contained in the title of this paper is definitely negative.