Project Grant 2307202

The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York (Columbia University) was awarded a three-year, $527,708 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Astronomical Sciences under the Mathematical and Physical Sciences program (CFDA 47.049). The grant funds global kinetic modeling and particle-in-cell simulations by Columbia University researchers to better understand the intrabinary shock in "spider pulsars," which are rapidly rotating neutron stars in tight binary orbits exhibiting relativistic winds impacting companion stars. Researchers will use state-of-the-art computational modeling to simultaneously capture the microscopic physics of magnetic field dissipation, particle acceleration and emission, as well as the global morphology and dynamics of the resulting shocks and outflows. While focused on spider pulsars, the research also aims to further knowledge of particle acceleration in magnetically-dominated relativistic outflows found in other astrophysical systems such as active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts.