  We want to understand what drives magnetospheric dissipation in the
equatorial current sheet. Numerical simulations have limitations and, unless we
have a clear a priori understanding of the physical processes involved, their
results can be misleading. We argue that the canonical pulsar magnetosphere is
strongly dissipative and that a large fraction (up to 30-40% in an aligned
rotator) of the spindown luminosity is redirected towards the equator where it
is dissipated into particle acceleration and emission of radiation. We show
that this is due to the failure of the equatorial electric current to cross the
Y-point at the tip of the corotating zone.
