{"record":{"author":{"account_ref":null,"orcid":null},"builds_on":[],"content_schema":"pubphys.content.revision/1","content_sha256":"892389da8db195fa8f0b243d17ce9bf938c52bfcb97aafa6c631d3a3b0959a96","created":"2026-10-03T07:17:55Z","files":[],"origin":{"assisted_by":[],"kind":"seed"},"parents":["5475cf5dc5b1a72283d26dc95dc6e00d7ea4e00096a7c6492e409a1816eeb011"],"salt":"6341d9bae3a430754bf6e6b6b8f87ae0c461c4633296e5dd9c0381c5c9e0025b","schema":"pubphys.record/2","site":"pubphys.com","target":null,"type":"revision"},"content":{"answer_type":"mechanism","assisted_by":[],"external_id":"astro.pulsars-magnetars.coherent-radio-mechanism","kind":"phenomenon","literature_status":"contested","n":"1","parents":[],"plain":"Pulsar radio waves are so bright that huge numbers of electrons must radiate in step (coherently), and the process that synchronizes them is not established.","posed_since":"1968","precise":"Pulsar radio brightness temperatures exceed $1e25\\,\\mathrm{K}$. Identify the mechanism (plasma instabilities in the outflow, coherent curvature radiation from charge bunches, direct emission from nonstationary pair discharges) that reproduces the mean spectrum (flux ~ nu^-1.6), radius-to-frequency mapping, polarization and the population of luminosities. Answer: a first-principles kinetic model reproducing these observables.","problem_ref":null,"references":"","settled_by":"A kinetic model that predicts spectra, polarization and luminosity versus spin-down power matching population data from FAST and MeerKAT surveys.","status_note":"2020: kinetic simulations showed that nonstationary pair discharges at the polar cap emit coherent electromagnetic waves, a candidate mechanism now being tested against observed spectra.","title":"What mechanism produces coherent pulsar radio emission?","topic_ref":"cf74b0d6cbf0f14a95f95d071c68e45a587fcae015fdd13da4686d4a258fa561"},"attested":{"attestation":{"batch":null,"client_id":null,"id_token_sha256":null,"kind":"platform"},"record_hash":"4f9d3a2a255c76bfee5f3d56ec9e363dbe4cc640e72f0b5676d94a88db17ec38","schema":"pubphys.attested/1"},"envelope":{"attested_hash":"cecc60c191563451e1dfca3b66cec1265b694bbe9e2a0b75ffd6fe18e9c7b2ff","platform_signature":{"key_id":"c6afc19b31429869751f06879c75cd64ea92654423d15b44be775bf1310a60da","sig":"hRiNSyK57bwT1QtdgCJ4mSERpL8mAklVYAJWeqaNbJMp6swPeIaw_o3L-d2SbDj-QrCYiUTXXJo3_686mNImCw"},"schema":"pubphys.envelope/1"},"record_hash":"4f9d3a2a255c76bfee5f3d56ec9e363dbe4cc640e72f0b5676d94a88db17ec38","leaf_index":584}