Photon Splitting and Pair Creation in Highly Magnetized Pulsars

Abstract

The absence of radio pulsars with long periods has lead to the popular notion of a high P ``death line.'' In the standard picture, beyond this boundary, pulsars with low spin rates cannot accelerate particles above the stellar surface to high enough energies to initiate pair cascades, and the pair creation needed for radio emission is strongly suppressed. In this paper we explore the possibility of another pulsar ``death line'' in the context of polar cap models, corresponding to high magnetic fields B in the upper portion of the period-period derivative diagram, a domain where few radio pulsars are observed. The origin of this high B boundary, which may occur when B becomes comparable to or exceeds $B_{\rm cr} = 4.4 \times 10^{13}$ Gauss, is also due to the suppression of magnetic pair creation, but primarily because of ineffective competition with magnetic photon splitting. Threshold pair creation also plays a prominent role in the suppression of cascades. We present Monte Carlo calculations of the pair yields in photon splitting/pair cascades which show that, in the absence of scattering effects, pair production is effectively suppressed, but only if all three modes of photon splitting allowed by QED are operating in high fields. This paper describes the probable shape and position of the new ``death line,'' above which pulsars are expected to be radio quiet, but perhaps still X-ray and gamma-ray bright. The hypothesized existence of radio-quiet sources finds dramatic support in the recent discovery of ultra-strong fields in Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars. Guidelines for moderate to high B pulsar searches at radio wavelengths and also in the soft and hard gamma-ray bands are presented.