Coherent Radio Emission from a Twisted Magnetosphere after a Magnetar-quake

Abstract

Magnetars are a class of highly magnetized, slowly rotating neutron stars, only a small fraction of which exhibit radio emission. We propose that the coherent radio curvature emission is generated by net charge fluctuations from a twist-current-carrying bundle (the j-bundle) in the scenario of magnetar-quake. Two-photon pair production is triggered, which requires a threshold voltage not too much higher than 10⁹ V in the current-carrying bundle, and which can be regarded as the "open field lines" of a magnetar. Continued untwisting of the magnetosphere maintains change fluctuations, and hence coherent radio emission, in the progressively shrinking j-bundle, which lasts for years until the radio beam is too small to be detected. The modeled peak flux of radio emission and the flat spectrum are generally consistent with the observations. We show that this time-dependent, conal-beam, radiative model can interpret the variable radio pulsation behaviors and the evolution of the X-ray hot spot of the radio-transient magnetar XTE J1810-197 and the high-B pulsar/anomalous X-ray pulsar PSR J1622-4950. Radio emission with luminosity of and high-frequency oscillations are expected to be detected for a magnetar after an X-ray outburst. Differences of radio emission between magnetars and ordinary pulsars are discussed.