Résumé / Abstract Journal-club_GReCO

Séminaire / Seminar GReCO

« Spacetime approach to force-free magnetospheres »

Ted Jacobson
Department of Physics, University of Maryland (College Park, Maryland, Etats-Unis d'Amérique)

Neutron star and black hole magnetospheres are often modeled using force-free electrodynamics. In this peculiar scheme, the vanishing of the 4-force on the current plays the role of a field equation, with the current defined by the field via Maxwell's equations. The theory is usually presented in 3+1 form in terms of electric and magnetic fields, but both its intrinsic structure and the systems to which it is applied are fully (general) relativistic. In this talk I will review the structure of this theory and show how it becomes remarkably simple and elegant when treated relativistically with the help of exterior differential forms. Topics covered may include the well-known Michel rotating monopole and split monopole, current sheets, the Blandford-Znajek solution, new solutions without stationarity or axisymmetry, and the general structure of spinning neutron star and black hole magnetospheres.
lundi 14 octobre 2013 - 14:00
Salle des séminaires François Arago
Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris
Pages web du séminaire / Seminar's webpage