The Effect of e+e- Pair Production on Gamma-Ray Luminosities of Pulsars

We present details of a modified phenomenological polar cap model of γ-ray emission from pulsars, introduced recently by Rudak and Dyks (1998). The model attributes observed γ-rays mostly to electron-positron pairs created in magnetospheres by high energy curvature photons emitted by primary electrons. We show how the basic ingredient of the model - the number of created e± pairs - depends on the pulsar period, and the magnetic field, for two different prescriptions for the energy of the primaries, and how it affects predictions for the γ-ray luminosity. The model has been successfully applied to the results of the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory (CGRO) observations.