CHAOTIC ACCRETION IN A NON-STATIONARY ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELD OF A SLOWLY ROTATING COMPACT STAR

Abstract

We investigate charge accretion in the vicinity of a slowly rotating compact star with a non-stationary electromagnetic field. Exact solutions to the general relativistic Maxwell equations are obtained for a star formed of a highly degenerate plasma with a gravitational field given by the linearized Kerr metric. These solutions are used to formulate and then to study numerically the equations of motion for a charged particle in the star's vicinity using the gravitoelectromagnetic force law. The analysis shows that close to the star, charge accretion does not always remain ordered. It is found that the magnetic field plays the dominant role in the onset of chaos near the star's surface.