Magnetic fields in late-stage proto-neutron stars

S. K. Lander, P. Haensel, B. Haskell, J. L. Zdunik, M. Fortin

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    Abstract

    We explore the thermal and magnetic field structure of a late-stage proto-neutron star (proto-NS). We find the dominant contribution to the entropy in different regions of the star, from which we build a simplified equation of state (EOS) for the hot neutron star (NS). With this, we numerically solve the stellar equilibrium equations to find a range of models, including magnetic fields and rotation up to Keplerian velocity. We approximate the EOS as a barotrope, and discuss the validity of this assumption. For fixed magnetic field strength, the induced ellipticity increases with temperature; we give quantitative formulae for this. The Keplerian velocity is considerably lower for hotter stars, which may set a de facto maximum rotation rate for non-recycled NSs well below 1 kHz. Magnetic fields stronger than around 1014 G have qualitatively similar equilibrium states in both hot and cold NSs, with large-scale simple structure and the poloidal field component dominating over the toroidal one; we argue this result may be universal. We show that truncating magnetic field solutions at low multipoles leads to serious inaccuracies, especially for models with rapid rotation or a strong toroidal-field component.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)875–895
    Number of pages21
    JournalMonthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
    Volume503
    Issue number1
    Early online date17 Feb 2021
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - May 2021

    Keywords

    • stars: evolution
    • stars: interiors
    • stars: magnetic fields
    • stars: neutron
    • stars: rotation

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