 Anatoly Spitkovsky

Anatoly Spitkovsky developed time-dependent calculations of plasma-filled pulsar magnetospheres using the force-free limit, including cases with a tilted magnetic axis. The simulations determine field structure and rotational energy loss while allowing magnetospheric currents and current sheets.^[ref]

Such calculations test the limits of applying a vacuum-dipole picture to a conducting plasma. The approximation neglects plasma inertia where electromagnetic stresses dominate; it does not assert that the plasma is physically absent.