How Common Are Magnetars? The Consequences of Magnetic Field Decay

1998/07/29 by Jeremy Heyl, Jeremy S. Heyl, S. R. Kulkarni · 9 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/311628

published as 1998, ApJ, 506, L61 · 7 pages, 1 figure, accepted for publication in Ap. J. Letters

arxiv created 1998/07/29 · openalex publication_date 1998/10/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31

Abstract

Ultramagnetized neutron stars, or magnetars, have been invoked to explain several astrophysical phenomena. We examine how the magnetic field of a magnetar will decay over time and how this decay affects the cooling of the object. We find that for sufficiently strong nascent fields, field decay alters significantly the cooling evolution relative to similarly magnetized neutron stars with constant fields. As a result, old magnetars can be expected to be bright in the soft X-ray band. The soft X-ray source RX J0720.4-3125 may well be the nearest such old magnetar.

Cited by

• Superfluid Friction and Late‐Time Thermal Evolution of Neutron Stars
• Resonant Cyclotron Scattering in Three Dimensions and the Quiescent Nonthermal X‐ray Emission of Magnetars
• The Response of Bare Strange Stars to the Energy Input onto Their Surfaces
• Gravitational wave background from magnetars
• Population synthesis of pulsars: Magnetic field effects
• Magnetic Field Evolution in Neutron Star Crusts Due to the Hall Effect and Ohmic Decay
• Magnetars: Time Evolution, Superfluid Properties, and the Mechanism of Magnetic Field Decay
• The continued spectral and temporal evolution of RX J0720.4-3125
• WIND BRAKING OF MAGNETARS