Abstract
The magnetic and thermal evolution of neutron stars is a very complex process with many non-linear interactions. For a decent understanding of neutron star physics, these evolutions cannot be considered isolated. A brief overview is presented, which describes the main magneto–thermal interactions that determine the fate of both isolated neutron stars and accreting ones. Special attention is devoted to the interplay of thermal and magnetic evolution at the polar cap of radio pulsars. There, a strong meridional temperature gradient is maintained over the lifetime of radio pulsars. It may be strong enough to drive thermoelectric magnetic field creation which perpetuate a toroidal magnetic field around the polar cap rim. Such a local field component may amplify and curve the poloidal surface field at the cap, forming a strong and small scale magnetic field as required for the radio emission of pulsars.
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Acknowledgements
The author is grateful to J. A. Pons, who provided the thermal and magnetic diffusivities by use of the St. Petersburg code and the 2D envelope simulation of the situation at the polar cap. He also gratefully acknowledge the numerous discussions with J. A. Pons and A. Potekhin, who brought to the author’s attention the caveats of the idea presented here. Enlightening discussions with A. Szary and G. Melikidze are also gratefully acknowledged.
When the author started to try to understand some aspects of neutron star physics, one of the first papers he read was Srinivasan & van den Heuvel (1982) about the evolution of millisecond pulsars. Then the connection between the (at that time in optical light) invisible pulsars and the fascinating manifestations of supernova remnants (Srinivasan et al. 1984) increased his interest in this branch of astrophysics. The observation of millisecond pulsars in the early eighties was a challenge, which was met by Prof. Srinivasan and his colleagues (see e.g. Bhattacharya & Srinivasan 1986; Srinivasan 1989). Later the pioneering work of Srinivasan et al. (1990) triggered his interest to understand how the very long-lived core magnetic field is affected by the rotational history of neutron stars and how the evolutions of core and crustal field are coupled to each other. Meanwhile, Prof. Srinivasan enriched our knowledge about neutron stars by many contributions, one being their evolution in accreting binary systems, about the recycling of old pulsars to millisecond pulsars, about the supernova remnants and pulsar wind nebulae which are results of neutron star births, about the use of radiotelescope for pulsar observations and about many other topics. As far as the author can see, being a far distant observer, Prof. Srinivasan also succeeded in the formation of a group of excellent and worldwide renown Indian scientists working in the field of neutron star physics. May be there exists a not yet discovered age-relativistic effect that makes the time running faster when seen by an ageing person. It seems to be this effect that made the author surprised to recognize that Prof. Srinivasan celebrates already his 75th birthday. This special issue is a good opportunity to esteem his life-work and the author is happy to contribute to it.
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Geppert, U. Magneto–Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars with Emphasis to Radio Pulsars. J Astrophys Astron 38, 46 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-017-9460-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12036-017-9460-y