How Common Are Magnetars? The Consequences of Magnetic Field Decay | Zendy

Jeremy Heyl | Zendy; S. R. Kulkarni | Zendy

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How Common Are Magnetars? The Consequences of Magnetic Field Decay

Author(s) -

Jeremy Heyl,

S. R. Kulkarni

Publication year - 1998

Publication title -

the astrophysical journal

Language(s) - English

Resource type - Journals

SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376

H-Index - 489

eISSN - 1538-4357

pISSN - 0004-637X

DOI - 10.1086/311628

Subject(s) - magnetar , neutron star , physics , astrophysics , magnetic field , field (mathematics) , stars , astronomy , quantum mechanics , mathematics , pure mathematics

Ultramagnetized neutron stars or magnetars have been invoked to explainseveral astrophysical phenomena. We examine how the magnetic field of amagnetar will decay over time and how this decay affects the cooling of theobject. We find that for sufficiently strong nascent fields, field decay altersthe cooling evolution significantly relative to similarly magnetized neutronstars with constant fields. As a result, old magnetars can be expected to bebright in the soft X-ray band. The soft X-ray source RXJ~0720.4$-$3125 may wellbe the nearest such old magnetar.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Ap. J. Letter

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