Giant Pulses of Radio Pulsars

The parameters of pulsars with detected giant pulses (GPs) and the known models proposed to describe the GP phenomenon have been analyzed. The angles between the magnetic moment and the rotation axis of the neutron star have been estimated for such pulsars. This parameter is important in a number of analyzed models. It is noted that there is likely no unified model to explain all the features of GPs. Kontorovich’s model and the model by Machabeli et al. appear to be the most promising for describing GPs. In the first model, GPs are formed in a vacuum gap near the surface of a neutron star. The existence of such a gap and the presence of electric fields in it is considered generally accepted today. The second model explains GPs through nonlinear processes in plasma during the generation of drift waves at the periphery of the pulsar’s magnetosphere. The appearance of such waves, apparently, can also be considered inevitable, and their role in the observed phenomena can be significant. A more detailed development of each of the models is necessary to draw more definite conclusions about their role in the formation of GPs. This problem seems all the more relevant in light of the possibility of using the GP phenomenon to explain fast radio bursts.