The effect of the magnetoactive plasma on the subpulse polarization patterns from radio pulsars is analyzed, with the radiation presumed to originate from a very relativistic plasma streaming out along open field lines. The different polarizations of subpulse rays within a relativistically narrowed emission cone are ordered by adiabatic walking as the curved magnetic field lines bend slowly out of the emission cone in the near magnetosphere. Essentially 100% polarization averaged over the rays within the emission cone is found to be achievable even if the initial averaged polarization of the rays is zero. Expected asymmetries between the positively and negatively charged components of the magnetoactive plasma are observed to introduce circular polarization components into the polarization pattern even while adiabatic walking continues in the far magnetosphere.
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Cheng et al. (1979) studied this question.