Makarenko, EI, Igoshev, AP orcid.org/0000-0003-2145-1022 and Kholtygin, AF (2021) Testing the fossil field hypothesis: could strongly magnetised OB stars produce all known magnetars? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. ISSN 0035-8711
Abstract
Stars of spectral types O and B produce neutron stars (NSs) after supernova explosions. Most of NSs are strongly magnetised including normal radio pulsars with B∝1012 G and magnetars with B∝1014 G. A fraction of 7-12 per cent of massive stars are also magnetised with B∝103 G and some are weakly magnetised with B∝1 G. It was suggested that magnetic fields of NSs could be the fossil remnants of magnetic fields of their progenitors. This work is dedicated to study this hypothesis. First, we gather all modern precise measurements of surface magnetic fields in O, B and A stars. Second, we estimate parameters for log-normal distribution of magnetic fields in B stars and found μB = 2.83 ± 0.1 log10 (G), σB = 0.65 ± 0.09 for strongly magnetised and μB = 0.14 ± 0.5 log10 (G), σ=0.7+0.57−0.27 for weakly magnetised. Third, we assume that the magnetic field of pulsars and magnetars have 2.7 DEX difference in magnetic fields and magnetars represent 10 per cent of all young NSs and run population synthesis. We found that it is impossible to simultaneously reproduce pulsars and magnetars populations if the difference in their magnetic fields is 2.7 DEX. Therefore, we conclude that the simple fossil origin of the magnetic field is not viable for NSs.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2021 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society. This is an author produced version of an article accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | stars: neutron, magnetic fields, stars: massive, stars: magnetars, stars: magnetic field, methods: statistical |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Mathematics (Leeds) > Applied Mathematics (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 29 Apr 2021 14:25 |
Last Modified: | 29 Apr 2021 14:25 |
Status: | Published online |
Publisher: | Oxford University Press |
Identification Number: | 10.1093/mnras/stab1175 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:173351 |