Abstract

Recently it became obvious that the standard quantitative models of pair plasma generation and high energy gamma-ray emission from pulsars are fundamentally incompatible with the magnetosphere models, which required a thorough revision of these models starting from first principles. I will briefly overview the current state of the pulsar magnetosphere models and efforts of self-consistent modeling of electron-positron plasma generation in pulsars. I will report on results of truly self-consistent simulations of particle acceleration and electron-positron pair creation in pulsar magnetospheres, when particle acceleration, photon emission and propagation, pair production and screening of the electric field are calculated simultaneously and under the requirement of providing current density compatible with the global magnetosphere models. These results show that particle acceleration proceeds qualitatively different than in up to now “standard” stationary models which has profound implications on interpretation of observed high energy emission from pulsars. I discuss implications of this self-consistent particle acceleration model for pulsar gamma-ray emission observed by Fermi.