Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2023/iii/paper-314/1/b/ii/solution

In the midplane, the vacuum magnetic dipole field has scale , while the result of part i gives . Ampère's law then gives the induced-field estimate
where numerical factors are immaterial in this dimensional analysis. Thus at
This is the light cylinder radius: rigid corotation would have . The nonrelativistic approximation and the assumed unmodified vacuum field therefore fail at the same scale, and a self-consistent pulsar magnetosphere must replace them.

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