1D PIC Simulations of Resonant Scattering-Driven Pair Cascades in Magnetar Magnetospheres
Abstract
Hard X-rays in persistent magnetar emission originate from radiative processes in pair-loaded magnetospheric plasma, yet self-consistent kinetic simulations of such radiation-rich systems remain limited. We perform 1D particle-in-cell simulations of pair creation mediated by resonant inverse Compton scattering (RICS) along isolated field lines in twisted magnetospheres, capturing particle acceleration and radiative drag from first principles. The drag force, which strongly depends on the particle Lorentz factor and location, plays a key role in the magnetospheric circuit. Strong RICS drag impedes the flow of electrons and positrons, particularly along extended field lines. Nevertheless, the plasma sustains the circuit by self-organizing into a single accelerating gap near the star in one hemisphere. The accelerated plasma flow from the gap becomes loaded with copious electron-positron pairs in extended RICS zones, and also carries ions extracted from the star and accelerated in the gap. When radiative drag stops the pair-loaded flow at the magnetic equator, the ion component transfers momentum through streaming instabilities, delivering a small lepton population into the opposite hemisphere and sustaining the circuit. The gap confined to a single (anode) hemisphere implies asymmetric hard X-ray production, possibly detectable in phase-resolved magnetar spectra.
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BibTeX
@misc{mahlmann2026simulations,
title = {{1D PIC Simulations of Resonant Scattering-Driven Pair Cascades in Magnetar Magnetospheres}},
author = {Jens F. Mahlmann and Alexander A. Philippov and Adrien Soudais and Andrei M. Beloborodov and Lorenzo Sironi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.17661},
eprint = {2609.17661},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17661},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - 1D PIC Simulations of Resonant Scattering-Driven Pair Cascades in Magnetar Magnetospheres
AU - Jens F. Mahlmann
AU - Alexander A. Philippov
AU - Adrien Soudais
AU - Andrei M. Beloborodov
AU - Lorenzo Sironi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/15
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.17661
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.17661
AB - Hard X-rays in persistent magnetar emission originate from radiative processes in pair-loaded magnetospheric plasma, yet self-consistent kinetic simulations of such radiation-rich systems remain limited. We perform 1D particle-in-cell simulations of pair creation mediated by resonant inverse Compton scattering (RICS) along isolated field lines in twisted magnetospheres, capturing particle acceleration and radiative drag from first principles. The drag force, which strongly depends on the particle Lorentz factor and location, plays a key role in the magnetospheric circuit. Strong RICS drag impedes the flow of electrons and positrons, particularly along extended field lines. Nevertheless, the plasma sustains the circuit by self-organizing into a single accelerating gap near the star in one hemisphere. The accelerated plasma flow from the gap becomes loaded with copious electron-positron pairs in extended RICS zones, and also carries ions extracted from the star and accelerated in the gap. When radiative drag stops the pair-loaded flow at the magnetic equator, the ion component transfers momentum through streaming instabilities, delivering a small lepton population into the opposite hemisphere and sustaining the circuit. The gap confined to a single (anode) hemisphere implies asymmetric hard X-ray production, possibly detectable in phase-resolved magnetar spectra.
ER -