Most studies of the pulsar magnetosphere have assumed a pure magnetic dipole in flat spacetime. However, recent work suggests that the effects of general relativity are in fact of vital importance and that realistic pulsar magnetic fields will have a significant nondipolar component. We introduce a general analytical method for studying the axisymmetric force-free magnetosphere of a slowly rotating star of arbitrary magnetic field, mass, radius, and moment of inertia, including all the effects of general relativity. We confirm that spacelike current is generically present in the polar caps (suggesting a pair production region), irrespective of the stellar magnetic field. We show that general relativity introduces a similar to 60% correction to the formula for the dipolar component of the surface magnetic field inferred from spindown. Finally, we show that the location and shape of the polar caps can be modified dramatically by even modestly strong higher moments. This can affect emission processes occurring near the star and may help explain the modified beam characteristics of millisecond pulsars.

In the canonical model of a pulsar, rotational energy is transmitted through the surrounding plasma via two electrical circuits, each connecting to the star over a small region known as a "polar cap." For a dipole-magnetized star, the polar caps coincide with the magnetic poles (hence the name), but in general, they can occur at any place and take any shape. In light of their crucial importance to most models of pulsar emission (from radio to X-ray to wind), we develop a general technique for determining polar cap properties. We consider a perfectly conducting star surrounded by a force-free magnetosphere and include the effects of general relativity. Using a combined numerical-analytical technique that leverages the rotation rate as a small parameter, we derive a general analytic formula for the polar cap shape and charge-current distribution as a function of the stellar mass, radius, rotation rate, moment of inertia, and magnetic field. We present results for dipole and quadrudipole fields (superposed dipole and quadrupole) inclined relative to the axis of rotation. The inclined dipole polar cap results are the first to include general relativity, and they confirm its essential role in the pulsar problem. The quadrudipole pulsar illustrates the phenomenon of thin annular polar caps. More generally, our method lays a foundation for detailed modeling of pulsar emission with realistic magnetic fields.

The Neutron-star Interior Composition Explorer is an X-ray astrophysics payload that will be placed on the International Space Station. Its primary science goal is to measure with high accuracy the pulse profiles that arise from the non-uniform thermal surface emission of rotation-powered pulsars. Modeling general relativistic effects on the profiles will lead to measuring the radii of these neutron stars and to constraining their equation of state. Achieving this goal will depend, among other things, on accurate knowledge of the source, sky, and instrument backgrounds. We use here simple analytic estimates to quantify the level at which these backgrounds need to be known in order for the upcoming measurements to provide significant constraints on the properties of neutron stars. We show that, even in the minimal-information scenario, knowledge of the background at a few percent level for a background-to-source countrate ratio of 0.2 allows for a measurement of the neutron star compactness to better than 10% uncertainty for most of the parameter space. These constraints improve further when more realistic assumptions are made about the neutron star emission and spin, and when additional information about the source itself, such as its mass or distance, are incorporated.

We report the identification of a bright hard X-ray source dominating the M31 bulge above 25 keV from a simultaneous NuSTAR-Swift observation. We find that this source is the counterpart to Swift J0042.6+4112, which was previously detected in the Swift BAT All-sky Hard X-ray Survey. This Swift BAT source had been suggested to be the combined emission from a number of point sources; our new observations have identified a single X-ray source from 0.5 to 50 keV as the counterpart for the first time. In the 0.5-10 keV band, the source had been classified as an X-ray Binary candidate in various Chandra and XMM-Newton studies; however, since it was not clearly associated with Swift J0042.6+4112, the previous E < 10 keV observations did not generate much attention. This source has a spectrum with a soft X-ray excess (kT similar to 0.2 keV) plus a hard spectrum with a power law of Gamma similar to 1 and a cutoff around 15-20 keV, typical of the spectral characteristics of accreting pulsars. Unfortunately, any potential pulsation was undetected in the NuSTAR data, possibly due to insufficient photon statistics. The existing deep HST images exclude high-mass (> 3 M-circle dot) donors at the location of this source. The best interpretation for the nature of this source is an X-ray pulsar with an intermediate-mass (< 3 M-circle dot) companion or a symbiotic X-ray binary. We discuss other possibilities in more detail.

We use VLBA+VLA observations to measure the sizes of the scatter-broadened images of six of the most heavily scattered known pulsars: three within the Galactic Centre (GC) and three elsewhere in the inner Galactic plane (Delta l < 20 degrees). By combining the measured sizes with temporal pulse broadening data from the literature and using the thin-screen approximation, we locate the scattering medium along the line of sight to these six pulsars. At least two scattering screens are needed to explain the observations of the GC sample. We show that the screen inferred by previous observations of SGR J1745-2900 and Sgr A*, which must be located far from the GC, falls off in strength on scales less than or similar to 0 degrees.2. A second scattering component closer to (Delta < 2 kpc) or even (tentatively) within (Delta < 700 pc) the GC produces most or all of the temporal broadening observed in the other GC pulsars. Outside the GC, the scattering locations for all three pulsars are similar or equal to 2 kpc from Earth, consistent with the distance of the Carina-Sagittarius or Scutum spiral arm. For each object the 3D scattering origin coincides with a known H II region (and in one case also a supernova remnant), suggesting that such objects preferentially cause the intense interstellar scattering seen towards the Galactic plane. We show that the H II regions should contribute greater than or similar to 25 per cent of the total dispersion measure (DM) towards these pulsars, and calculate reduced DM distances. Those distances for other pulsars lying behind H II regions may be similarly overestimated.