Variability of the accretion stream regime with and without pulsar wind. The panels show, from top to bottom, the temporal variation of mean density (in g cm⁻³) within a ring, extending from the internal boundary of the pulsar wind to the circularization radius R_circ. Left column correspond to simulations without a pulsar wind (see Sect. 5.1), while right column to simulation with both winds. First line corresponds to scenario (b1), second line to scenario (b3).