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Handbook of Supernovae pp 1–10Cite as

Evolution of the Magnetic Field of Neutron Stars

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Abstract

The evolution of the magnetic field of neutron stars has been one of the open questions in astrophysics since the first pulsar was discovered in 1967. In this chapter, we present an overview of the research into the measures, observations, and models of the magnetic fields of neutron stars. It is usually thought that the magnetic fields of isolated pulsars should keep their original values or that the magnetic field of a neutron star in a binary star decays in the accretion phase but has no significant decay after the accretion stops. The recycled pulsar in a double neutron star system has accreted about 0.01–0.1 M ⊙, therefore its field decays to 109−10 G. However, a millisecond pulsar has accreted 0.1–0.2 M ⊙, producing a field of about 107. 5−9 G, which is almost the minimum value of the magnetic fields of neutron stars. The magnetic structure of a millisecond pulsar must deviate from a simple magnetic dipole. The matter accreting onto a neutron star dilutes its polar field lines and causes these field lines to be trapped in the crust of the extrapolar region, which could result in a local superstrong magnetic component of about 1014 G.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC 11173034) and the National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB821800).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Astronomical Observatories, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100012, Beijing, China

    C. M. Zhang Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy, CAS, 100012, Beijing, China

    C. M. Zhang Zhang

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  1. C. M. Zhang Zhang
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Correspondence to C. M. Zhang Zhang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of London Observatory, Mill Hill, United Kingdom

    Athem W. Alsabti

  2. Cambridge, United Kingdom

    Paul Murdin

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Zhang, C.M.Z. (2016). Evolution of the Magnetic Field of Neutron Stars. In: Alsabti, A., Murdin, P. (eds) Handbook of Supernovae. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20794-0_66-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-20794-0_66-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-20794-0

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