Magnetic inclination alignment with timescale proportional to B to the minus two suppresses observed numbers of strong-field neutron stars, unifying pulsars and magnetars under one log-uniform initial B distribution.
Pulsar braking and the P-Pdot diagram
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abstract
The location of radio pulsars in the period-period derivative (P-Pdot) plane has been a key diagnostic tool since the early days of pulsar astronomy. Of particular importance is how pulsars evolve through the P-Pdot diagram with time. Here we show that the decay of the inclination angle (alpha-dot) between the magnetic and rotation axes plays a critical role. In particular, alpha-dot strongly impacts on the braking torque, an effect which has been largely ignored in previous work. We carry out simulations which include a negative alpha-dot term, and show that it is possible to reproduce the observational P-Pdot diagram without the need for either pulsars with long birth periods or magnetic field decay. Our best model indicates a birth rate of 1 radio pulsar per century and a total Galactic population of ~20000 pulsars beaming towards Earth.
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A Log-Uniform Initial Magnetic Field Distribution Explains Pulsar and Magnetar Populations through Magnetic Inclination Alignment
Magnetic inclination alignment with timescale proportional to B to the minus two suppresses observed numbers of strong-field neutron stars, unifying pulsars and magnetars under one log-uniform initial B distribution.