Coherent emission of pulsars: a view from first-principles kinetic simulations

Neutron stars are powerful sources of broad-band non-thermal electromagnetic emission. The collective behavior of plasmas that produce these emission signatures is still poorly understood. In order to allow modeling emission signatures from first principles, I construct radiative kinetic plasma simulations of these extreme plasma environments. In this talk I describe applications of these methods to understand the long-standing problem of the generation of coherent radio waves. I show that polar radio emission is directly produced by non-stationary plasma discharges in the polar cap. I also describe how mergers of magnetic islands in the reconnecting current sheet beyond the light cylinder can power high-power giant pulses and nano shots observed from the Crab and other pulsars with high magnetic field at the light cylinder.