Also on the topic of pulsars, they typically operate in the radio band, which is far-infrared. These slow frequencies are typically synchrotron emissions, where a charged particle is spiraling in an external magnetic field (i.e., the charged particles are part of a Birkeland current). So I'm thinking that the radio emissions are nuclear fusion ejecta, which cross magnetic field lines on their way out of the toroidal plasmoid, and due to the Lorentz force, are forced to spiral. As they twist, they emit radio waves. Some pulsars also emit gamma rays, which would be from the nuclear fusion itself. These are easily absorbed, so we wouldn't expect them to be as common as the radio waves, which pass through just about anything.

 

Also, the pulse rate of a pulsar tends to be steady, but also gradually slows down. The standard model, which attributes the frequency to axial precession, says that the precession is slowing. Precession going that fast is impossible, so saying that something is slowing it down is just as impossible. I'm saying that the frequency comes from the speed of sound, which determines how fast an implosion will occur after the last explosion. If the frequency is slowing down, this means that the toroidal plasmoid is cooling down, and thus the speed of sound is diminishing.

 

Then there are "glitches", in which the pulse rate slows down somewhat more dramatically. The standard model says that the precession rate is reduced by a "starquake". So why don't some starquakes speed up the precession? ;) Anyway, in my model, a sudden slowing of the pulse rate is evidence of a sudden cooling. This could be caused by irregularities in the fuel supply. Assuming that matter is streaming in, toward the end of the life-cycle of an accretion disc, the matter thins out, and thus the nuclear reactor starts to cool down, and the explosion/implosion cycle will get slower. A sudden step-down in the density of the matter streaming in will produce a sudden step-down in the temperature of the reactor, and thus longer explosion/implosion cycles.