A ray-tracing model of the Vela pulsar

In the relativistic plasma surrounding a pulsar, a subluminal ordinary-mode electromagnetic wave will propagate along a magnetic field line. After som e distance, it can break free of the field line and escape the magnetospher e to reach an observer. We describe a simple model of pulsar radio emission based on this scenario and find that applying this model to the case of th e Vela pulsar reproduces qualitative characteristics of the observed Vela p ulse profile.