High-Energy Emission From Rotation-Powered Pulsars

Forty years after the discovery of rotation‐powered pulsars, we still do not understand many aspects of their pulsed emission. In the last few years there have been some fundamental developments in acceleration and emission models. I will review both the basic physics of the models as well as the latest developments in understanding the high‐energy emission of rotation‐powered pulsars. The prospects for a revolution of the field is about to take place with the launch of AGILE and GLAST. Prospects for using this large increase in γ‐ray data for the study of pulsar physics will be discussed.