English

How can newly born rapidly rotating neutron stars become magnetars?

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2014-04-30 v1 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics

Abstract

In a newly born (high-temperature and Keplerian rotating) neutron star, r-mode instability can lead to stellar differential rotation, which winds the seed poloidal magnetic field (1011\sim 10^{11} G) to generate an ultra-high (1017\sim 10^{17} G) toroidal field component. Subsequently, by succumbing to the Tayler instability, the toroidal field could be partially transformed into a new poloidal field. Through such dynamo processes, the newly born neutron star with sufficiently rapid rotation could become a magnetar on a timescale of 1023\sim 10^{2-3} s, with a surface dipolar magnetic field of 1015\sim10^{15} G. Accompanying the field amplification, the star could spin down to a period of 5\sim5 ms through gravitational wave radiation due to the r-mode instability and, in particular, the non-axisymmetric stellar deformation caused by the toroidal field. This scenario provides a possible explanation for why the remnant neutron stars formed in gamma-ray bursts and superluminous supernovae could be millisecond magnetars.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1404.7228,
  title  = {How can newly born rapidly rotating neutron stars become magnetars?},
  author = {Quan Cheng and Yun-Wei Yu},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1404.7228},
  year   = {2014}
}

Comments

5 pages, 2 figures, published in ApJL