This week's questions are about pulsar physics
from FK 23(2-5)

1. Give three reasons (or more!) why we find some supernova remnants without pulsars inside.

   2. In class we found a relation between the frequency of an electron's circular motion in a magnetic field (and therefore the dominant frequency it will emit light at) and the strength of the magnetic field.

a) Jupiter and the sun have similar magnetic fields; each is approximately 10^-4 T (or about 1 Gauss, to use the old units);

what wavelength of synchrotron light will be emitted?

b) if the synchrotron emission were to fall in the visible spectrum,
what magnetic field strength would be required?

   3.  a) where does the energy necessary to produce the  synchrotron radiation in a pulsar come from? 

                b) what evidence is there that this (energy transfer) happens?

                c) when a pulsar experiences the period "glitches" discussed in the text, what should the period decrease be accompanied by, if conservation of angular momentum holds during the glitch?