2016/10/17 by С. Б. Попов, S. B. Popov, R. Taverna +2
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Attractor #Cascade #Field (mathematics) #Geometry #Hall effect #Magnetic field #Neutron star #Physics #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum mechanics #Stars #Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies #Surface (topology) #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1093/mnras/stw2681
9 pages, accepted to MNRAS
arxiv created 2016/10/17 · openalex publication_date 2016/10/17 · arxiv updated 2016/12/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The evolution of magnetic field in isolated neutron stars is one of the most important ingredients in the attempt to build a unified description of these objects. A prediction of field evolution models is the existence of an equilibrium configuration, in which the Hall cascade vanishes. Recent calculations have explored the field structure in this stage, called the Hall attractor. We use X-ray data of near-by, cooling neutron stars to probe this prediction, as these sources are surmised to be close to or at Hall attractor phase. We show that the source RX J1856.5−3754 might be closer to the attractor than other sources of its class. Our modelling indicates that the properties of surface thermal emission, assuming that the star is in the Hall attractor, are in contradiction to the spectral data of RX J1856.5−3754.