Polarization of high-energy emission in a pulsar striped wind

The Stokes parameters of the pulsed synchrotron radiation produced in the striped pulsar wind model are computed and compared with optical observations of the Crab pulsar. The resulting radiation is linearly polarized. In the off-pulse region, the electric vector lies in the direction of the projection on the sky of the rotation axis of the pulsar, in good agreement with the data. Other properties such as a reduced degree of polarization and a characteristic sweep of the polarization angle within the pulses are also reproduced