What makes pulsars flicker? A spinning plasma instability might explain it.

Pulsars' spinning magnetospheres host an instability called diocotron that creates a lopsided charge distribution, rotating once per spin. This wobbling asymmetry stirs up the electric field and scrambles particle pathways, allowing charges to drift outward faster than expected. The resulting voltage fluctuations could directly modulate the radio beam, explaining observed nulling and drifting subpulses.