The radiation of a pulsar wind is computed assuming that at roughly 10 to 100 light cylinder radii from the star , magnetic energy is dissipated into particle energy .
The synchrotron emission of heated particles appears periodic , with , in general , both a pulse and an interpulse .
The predicted spacing agrees well with the Crab and Vela pulse profiles .
Using parameters appropriate for the Crab pulsar ( magnetisation parameter at the light cylinder \sigma _ { L } = 6 \times 10 ^ { 4 } , Lorentz factor \Gamma = 250 ) agreement is found with the observed total pulsed luminosity .
This suggests that the high-energy pulses from young pulsars originate not in the corotating magnetosphere within the light cylinder ( as in all other models ) but from the radially directed wind well outside it .