Crab pulsar optical and x-ray radiation through pinching instabilities

Interpenetrating charged streams carrying no net current are unstable to formation of filaments of alternating positive and negative current. The electron-positron streams formed above the Crab pulsar gap become liable to this mode near the light cylinder distance from the pulsar surface, if they have differing average energies. The growth rate and nonlinearly saturated amplitude of the magnetic turbulence generated is calculated. Particles emit synchrotron radiation incoherently in this turbulence. Power spectrum, polarization, and luminosity agree with observations, and indicate that the optical X-ray and γ-ray spectra may stem from this same mechanism