Spatiotemporal Ladder Theory as an Extension of Classical Physical Limits: A Q-Field Framework for Pulsar Coherent Radio Emission
Year: 2026
Type: preprint
Abstract: The coherent radio emission of pulsars exhibits an extremely high apparent brightness temperature, pronounced polarization structure, and complex magnetospheric propagation characteristics. Existing models investigate these phenomena from the perspectives of curvature radiation, collective plasma effects, and coherent maser emission, yet questions concerning the connection among the microscopic phase organization of the radiating source, the macroscopic magnetospheric dynamics, and the propagation process still merit further exploration. Within the framework of Spatiotemporal Ladder Theory (STLT), this paper proposes a minimal effective field theory model centered on the Q-field polarization variable . This paper does not conflate the gauge phase with an independent physical polarization variable; instead, it introduces separately the gauge phase , the gauge field , and a gauge-invariant polarization scalar , and describes the phase-locking structure and the coupling between Q-field polarization and the electromagnetic field through a unified action. We derive three field equations, construct static and dynamical backgrounds that satisfy all of the field equations, and obtain, at the level of linear perturbations, a conditional dispersion relation for transverse electromagnetic modes. On a dynamical polarization background, the model yields the inference that the two circularly polarized modes may have different dispersion relations. In the weak-coupling, high-frequency approximation, a relation between polarization rotation and the variation of the polarization variable along the propagation path can further be established. At the same time, this paper explicitly distinguishes conclusions directly supported by the dispersion relation from spectral and coherence-time predictions that can be obtained only after a medium response is introduced. For the hierarchy parameter of STLT, its connection to an equivalent energy scale is defined in this paper as a phenomenological hypothesis, and is not misrepresented as a result derived from the field equations. The purpose of this paper is not to claim that the coherent radiation of pulsars has been completely explained, but to establish an effective STLT model that admits background tests, linear stability analysis, and astronomical observational constraints, thereby providing a unified mathematical starting point for subsequent theoretical development.
Author: chang, binggong
Language: English
Subfield: Astronomy and Astrophysics
Field: Physics and Astronomy
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W7223349696