Onset of Electron Captures and Shallow Heating in Magnetars

The loss of magnetic pressure accompanying the decay of the magnetic field in a magnetar may trigger exothermic electron captures by nuclei in the shallow layers of the stellar crust. Very accurate analytical formulas are obtained for the threshold density and pressure, as well as for the maximum amount of heat that can be possibly released, taking into account the Landau–Rabi quantization of electron motion. These formulas are valid for arbitrary magnetic field strengths, from the weakly quantizing regime to the most extreme situation in which electrons are all confined to the lowest level. Numerical results are also presented based on experimental nuclear data supplemented with predictions from the Brussels-Montreal model HFB-24. This same nuclear model has been already employed to calculate the equation of state in all regions of magnetars.

Heating in Magnetar Crusts from Electron Captures

The persistent thermal luminosity of magnetars and their outbursts suggest the existence of some internal heat sources located in their outer crust. The compression of matter accompanying the decay of the magnetic field may trigger exothermic electron captures and, possibly, pycnonuclear fusions of light elements that may have been accreted onto the surface from the fallback of supernova debris, from a disk or from the interstellar medium. This scenario bears some resemblance to deep crustal heating in accreting neutron stars, although the matter composition and the thermodynamic conditions are very different. The maximum possible amount of heat that can be released by each reaction and their locations are determined analytically taking into account the Landau–Rabi quantization of electron motion. Numerical results are also presented using experimental, as well as theoretical nuclear data. Whereas the heat deposited is mainly determined by atomic masses, the locations of the sources are found to be very sensitive to the magnetic field strength, thus providing a new way of probing the internal magnetic field of magnetars. Most sources are found to be concentrated at densities 1010–1011 g cm−3 with heat power W∞∼1035–1036 erg/s, as found empirically by comparing cooling simulations with observed thermal luminosity. The change of magnetic field required to trigger the reactions is shown to be consistent with the age of known magnetars. This suggests that electron captures and pycnonuclear fusion reactions may be a viable heating mechanism in magnetars. The present results provide consistent microscopic inputs for neutron star cooling simulations, based on the same model as that underlying the Brussels-Montreal unified equations of state.

Axion Emission Can Explain a New Hard X-Ray Excess from Nearby Isolated Neutron Stars

Axions may be produced thermally inside the cores of neutron stars (NSs), escape the stars due to their feeble interactions with matter, and subsequently convert into x rays in the magnetic fields surrounding the stars. We show that a recently discovered excess of hard x-ray emission in the 2-8 keV energy range from the nearby magnificent seven isolated NSs could be explained by this emission mechanism. These NSs are unique in that they had previously been expected to only produce observable flux in the UV and soft x-ray bands from thermal surface emission at temperatures ∼100  eV. No conventional astrophysical explanation of the magnificent seven hard x-ray excess exists at present. We show that the hard x-ray excess may be consistently explained by an axionlike particle with mass m_{a}≲2×10^{-5}  eV and g_{aγγ}×g_{ann}∈(2×10^{-21},10^{-18})  GeV^{-1} at 95% confidence, accounting for both statistical and theoretical uncertainties, where g_{aγγ} (g_{ann}) is the axion-photon (axion-neutron) coupling constant.

Estimation of Electrical Conductivity and Magnetization Parameter of Neutron Star Crusts and Applied to the High-Braking-Index Pulsar PSR J1640-4631

Young pulsars are thought to be highly magnetized neutron stars (NSs). The crustal magnetic field of a NS usually decays at different timescales in the forms of Hall drift and Ohmic dissipation. The magnetization parameter ω B τ is defined as the ratio of the Ohmic timescale τ O h m to the Hall drift timescale τ H a l l . During the first several million years, the inner temperature of the newly born neutron star cools from T = 10 9 K to T = 1.0 × 10 8 K, and the crustal conductivity increases by three orders of magnitude. In this work, we adopt a unified equations of state for cold non-accreting neutron stars with the Hartree–Fock–Bogoliubov method, developed by Pearson et al. (2018), and choose two fiducial dipole magnetic fields of B = 1.0 × 10 13 G and B = 1.0 × 10 14 G, four different temperatures, T, and two different impurity concentration parameters, Q, and then calculate the conductivity of the inner crust of NSs and give a general expression of magnetization parameter for young pulsars: ω B τ ≃ ( 1 − 50 ) B 0 / ( 10 13 G) by using numerical simulations. It was found when B ≤ 10 15 G, due to the quantum effects, the conductivity increases slightly with the increase in the magnetic field, the enhanced magnetic field has a small effect on the matter in the low-density regions of the crust, and almost has no influence the matter in the high-density regions. Then, we apply the general expression of the magnetization parameter to the high braking-index pulsar PSR J1640-4631. By combining the observed arrival time parameters of PSR J1640-4631 with the magnetic induction equation, we estimated the initial rotation period P 0 , the initial dipole magnetic field B 0 , the Ohm dissipation timescale τ O h m and Hall drift timescale τ H a l l . We model the magnetic field evolution and the braking-index evolution of the pulsar and compare the results with its observations. It is expected that the results of this paper can be applied to more young pulsars.

Observational diversity of magnetized neutron stars

Young and rotation-powered neutron stars (NSs) are commonly observed as rapidly-spinning pulsars. They dissipate their rotational energy by emitting pulsar wind with electromagnetic radiation and spin down at a steady rate, according to the simple steadily-rotating magnetic dipole model. In reality, however, multiwavelength observations of radiation from the NS surface and magnetosphere have revealed that the evolution and properties of NSs are highly diverse, often dubbed as 'NS zoo'. In particular, many of young and highly magnetized NSs show a high degree of activities, such as sporadic electromagnetic outbursts and irregular changes in pulse arrival times. Importantly, their magnetic field, which are the strongest in the universe, makes them ideal laboratories for fundamental physics. A class of highly-magnetized isolated NSs is empirically divided into several subclasses. In a broad classification, they are, in the order of the magnetic field strength (B) from the highest, 'magnetars' (historically recognized as soft gamma-ray repeaters and/or anomalous x-ray pulsars), 'high-B pulsars', and (nearby) x-ray isolated NSs. This article presents an introductory review for non-astrophysicists about the observational properties of highly-magnetized NSs, and their implications. The observed dynamic nature of NSs must be interpreted in conjunction with transient magnetic activities triggered during magnetic-energy dissipation process. In particular, we focus on how the five fundamental quantities of NSs, i.e. mass, radius, spin period, surface temperature, and magnetic fields, as observed with modern instruments, change with evolution of, and vary depending on the class of, the NSs. They are the foundation for a future unified theory of NSs.