Nature of giant pulses in radio pulsars

Abstract

Formation of giant radio pulses is attributed to propagation effects in the plasma of pulsar magnetosphere. Induced scattering of radio waves by the plasma particles is found to lead to an efficient redistribution of the radio emission in frequency. With the steep spectrum of pulsar radiation, intensity transfer between the widely spaced frequencies may imply significant narrow-band amplification of the radiation. This may give rise to giant pulses. It is demonstrated that the statistics of giant pulse intensities observed can be reproduced if one take into account pulse-to-pulse fluctuations of the plasma number density and the original intensity. Polarization properties of the strongly amplified pulses, their location in the average pulse window and the origin of the nanostructure of giant pulses are discussed as well.