Grand Unification in Neutron Stars

Abstract

The last decade has shown us that the observational properties of neutron stars are remarkably diverse. From magnetars to rotating radio transients, from radio pulsars to `isolated neutron stars,' from central compact objects to millisecond pulsars, observational manifestations of neutron stars are surprisingly varied, with most properties totally unpredicted. The challenge is to establish an overarching physical theory of neutron stars and their birth properties that can explain this great diversity. Here I survey the disparate neutron stars classes, describe their properties, and highlight results made possible by the Chandra X-ray Observatory, in celebration of its tenth anniversary. Finally, I describe the current status of efforts at physical `grand unification' of this wealth of observational phenomena, and comment on possibilities for Chandra's next decade in this field.

Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences special issue in celebration of Chandra's 10th Anniversary.

References in corpus (33)

• Transient pulsed radio emission from a magnetar
• The Magnificent Seven: Magnetic fields and surface temperature distributions
• 1E 1547.0-5408: a radio-emitting magnetar with a rotation period of 2 seconds
• A Neutron Star with a Carbon Atmosphere in the Cassiopeia A Supernova Remnant
• Magnetar-like Emission from the Young Pulsar in Kes 75
• On the birthrates of Galactic neutron stars
• 2D Cooling of Magnetized Neutron Stars
• Spin-down Measurement of PSR J1852+0040 in Kesteven 79: Central Compact Objects as Anti-Magnetars
• A long-period, violently-variable X-ray source in a young SNR
• Is pulsar B0656+14 a very nearby RRAT source?
• Fitting Pulsar Wind Tori. II. Error Analysis and Applications
• Heating and Non-thermal Particle Acceleration in Relativistic, Transverse Magnetosonic Shock Waves in Proton-Electron-Positron Plasmas
• Discovery of a 112 ms X-ray Pulsar in Puppis A: Further Evidence of Neutron Stars Weakly Magnetized at Birth
• Evidence for Heating of Neutron Stars by Magnetic Field Decay
• Evidence for precession of the isolated neutron star RX J0720.4-3125
• Constraining the Spin-down of the Nearby Isolated Neutron Star RX J2143.0+0654
• Precise Timing of the X-ray Pulsar 1E 1207.4-5209: A Steady Neutron Star Weakly Magnetized at Birth
• Deep Chandra Observation of the Pulsar Wind Nebula Powered by the Pulsar J1846-0258 in the Supernova Remnant Kes 75
• Thermal X-rays from Millisecond Pulsars: Constraining the Fundamental Properties of Neutron Stars
• A dedicated Chandra ACIS observation of the central compact object in the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant
• Discovery of an Isolated Compact Object at High Galactic Latitude
• X-ray Timing of PSR J1852+0040 in Kesteven 79: Evidence of Neutron Stars Weakly Magnetized at Birth
• Discovery of extended X-ray emission around the highly magnetic RRAT J1819-1458
• The Nature of the Compact X-ray Source in Supernova Remnant RCW 103
• 1E161348-5055 in the Supernova Remnant RCW 103: A Magnetar in a Young Low Mass Binary System?
• Deep infrared observations of the puzzling central X-ray source in RCW103
• XMM-Newton RGS spectrum of RX J0720.4-3125: An absorption feature at 0.57 keV
• Constraining the Proper Motions of Two Magnetars
• Chandra X-Ray Observatory Observations of Neutron Stars: An Overview
• Thermal emission from isolated neutron stars: theoretical and observational aspects
• Modeling Pulsar Wind Nebulae
• Pulsar High-Energy Emission From the Polar Cap and Slot Gap
• Variability of the High-Magnetic Field X-ray Pulsar PSR J1846-0258 Associated with the Supernova Remnant Kes 75 as Revealed by the Chandra X-ray Observatory

Cited by in corpus (150)

• Magnetars
• The McGill Magnetar Catalog
• The First CHIME/FRB Fast Radio Burst Catalog
• Magnetars: the physics behind observations
• Unifying the observational diversity of isolated neutron stars via magneto-thermal evolution models
• A low-magnetic-field Soft Gamma Repeater
• A unified model of the magnetar and radio pulsar bursting phenomenology
• The braking index of PSR J1734-3333 and the magnetar population
• RRATs: New Discoveries, Timing Solutions & Musings
• A highly resistive layer within the crust of X-ray pulsars limits their spin periods
• The Spin-down of PSR J0821-4300 and PSR J1210-5226: Confirmation of Central Compact Objects as Anti-Magnetars
• Pulsar Wind Nebulae as Cosmic Pevatrons: A Current Sheet's Tale
• Evolution of a buried magnetic field in the central compact object neutron stars
• Gravitational Waves: Sources, Detectors and Searches
• Atmospheres and radiating surfaces of neutron stars
• Magnetic field amplification and magnetically supported explosions of collapsing, non-rotating stellar cores
• Magnetic field evolution in magnetar crusts through three dimensional simulations
• Central Compact Objects in Supernova Remnants
• Magnetically-driven crustquakes in neutron stars
• Hydromagnetic Instabilities in Neutron Stars
• The Hidden Magnetic Field of The Young Neutron Star in Kesteven 79
• Is SGR 0418+5729 indeed a waning magnetar ?
• Magnetic field growth in young glitching pulsars with a braking index
• Magnetic fields in superconducting neutron stars
• Post-outburst X-ray flux and timing evolution of Swift J1822.3-1606
• Equilibrium spin pulsars unite neutron star populations
• Magnetars: a short review and some sparse considerations
• Polarization of neutron star surface emission: a systematic analysis
• Magnetic field decay in neutron stars: from Soft Gamma Repeaters to "weak field magnetars"
• Magnetic Field Evolution of Neutron Stars I: Basic formalism, numerical techniques, and first results
• The contrasting magnetic fields of superconducting pulsars and magnetars
• The Proper Motion of the Central Compact Object RX J0822-4300 in the Supernova Remnant Puppis A
• Magnetic Field Evolution in Superconducting Neutron Stars
• Rotating neutron stars with exotic cores: masses, radii, stability
• Thermal emission of neutron stars with internal heaters
• Constraints on the symmetry energy from observational probes of the neutron star crust
• Neutron stars - thermal emitters
• The Thousand-Pulsar-Array programme on MeerKAT: -- VI. Pulse widths of a large and diverse sample of radio pulsars
• Absorption Features in the X-ray Spectrum of an Ordinary Radio Pulsar
• Long-Term X-ray Monitoring of the Young Pulsar PSR B1509-58
• Chandra Observations of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar J1718-3718
• Magnetic Fields of Neutron Stars
• Do Central Compact Objects have Carbon Atmospheres?
• Deep X-ray Observations of the Young High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar J1119-6127 and Supernova Remnant G292.2-0.5
• Magnetic field evolution and equilibrium configurations in neutron star cores: the effect of ambipolar diffusion
• Signatures of photon-axion conversion in the thermal spectra and polarization of neutron stars
• X-ray Observations of High-B Radio Pulsars
• Evolution of the magnetic field in neutron stars
• Spin Period Evolution of Recycled Pulsar in Accreting Binary
• Electromagnetic Torques, Precession and Evolution of Magnetic Inclination of Pulsars
• Post fall-back evolution of multipolar magnetic fields and radio pulsar activation
• The SUrvey for Pulsars and Extragalactic Radio Bursts IV: Discovery and polarimetry of a 12.1-second radio pulsar
• The second set of pulsar discoveries by CHIME/FRB/Pulsar: 14 Rotating Radio Transients and 7 pulsars
• Post-Outburst Radio Observations of the High Magnetic Field Pulsar PSR J1119-6127
• Physics and astrophysics of strong magnetic field systems with eXTP
• Low-magnetic-field magnetars
• Proper Motion and Timing of Two Unusual Pulsars: Calvera and 1E 1207.4-5209
• Dependence of pulsar death line on the equation of state
• Chandra observations of SGR 1627-41 near quiescence
• XMM-Newton reveals a candidate period for the spin of the "Magnificent Seven" neutron star RX J1605.3+3249
• Radio Pulsar Sub-Populations (I) : The Curious Case of Nulling Pulsars
• 3D Magneto-thermal Simulations of Tangled Crustal Magnetic Field in Central Compact Objects
• Chandra observations of the elusive pulsar wind nebula around PSR B0656+14
• The Proper Motion of the Central Compact Object RX J0822-4300 in the Supernova Remnant Puppis A, Revisited
• On The Evolution of The Radio Pulsar PSR J1734-3333
• Magnetic field evolution timescales in superconducting neutron stars
• Two-fluid simulations of the magnetic field evolution in neutron star cores in the weak-coupling regime
• Long-term evolution of dim isolated neutron stars
• Discovery and modelling of broad-scale plasma lensing in black-widow pulsar J2051$-$0827
• Dissipative relativistic magnetohydrodynamics of a multicomponent mixture and its application to neutron stars
• Hunting for Orphaned Central Compact Objects among Radio Pulsars
• Force on proton vortices in superfluid neutron stars
• Anisotropic crystal structure of magnetized neutron star crust
• An X-Ray-dim "Isolated'' Neutron Star in a Binary?
• Magnetic Field Evolution in Neutron Star Crusts: Beyond the Hall Effect
• Modelling spin evolution of magnetars
• Neutron Star Physics in the Square Kilometer Array Era : An Indian Perspective
• New XMM-Newton observation of the thermally emitting isolated neutron star 2XMM J104608.7-594306
• Evolution of Spin Period and Magnetic Field of the Crab Pulsar: Decay of the Braking Index by the Particle Wind Flow Torque
• XMM-Newton observations of PSR J0726-2612, a radio-loud XDINS
• On the Diversity of Compact Objects within Supernova Remnants. I: A Parametric Model for Magnetic Field Evolution
• The X-ray Counterpart of the High-B Pulsar PSR J0726-2612
• Binary Pulsars in Magnetic Field versus Spin Period Diagram
• XMM-Newton X-ray Observation of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar PSR J1734--3333
• The Origins of X-ray Line Emissions in Circinus~X-1 at Very Low X-ray Flux
• Unexpected emission pattern adds to the enigma of fast radio bursts
• Combined magnetic field evolution in neutron star cores and crusts: Ambipolar diffusion, Hall effect and Ohmic dissipation
• Timing Noise in Pulsars and Magnetars and the Magnetospheric Moment of Inertia
• Transport coefficients of leptons in superconducting neutron star cores
• Observations of Radio Magnetars with the Deep Space Network
• Universal detection of high-temperature emission in X-ray Isolated Neutron Stars
• Multi-Messenger Constraints on Magnetic Fields in Merging Black Hole-Neutron Star Binaries
• The freedom to choose neutron star magnetic field equilibria
• Central compact objects in Kes 79 and RCW 103 as "hidden" magnetars with crustal activity
• Strongly magnetized pulsars: explosive events and evolution
• Pulse Frequency Fluctuations of Magnetars
• A Tale of Two Current Sheets
• Magnetised neutron star crust within effective relativistic mean-field model
• Probing the surface magnetic field structure in RX J1856.5-3754
• On the Global Structure of Pulsar Force-free Magnetosphere
• Herschel and Spitzer observations of slowly rotating, nearby isolated neutron stars
• Unifying neutron stars: getting to GUNS
• Classification of pulsars with Dirichlet process Gaussian mixture model
• Constraints on physics of neutron stars from X-ray observations
• An Overview of Compact Star Populations and Some of Its Open Problems
• SGR 0418+5729 as an evolved Quark-Nova compact remnant
• The impact of superconductivity and the Hall effect in models of magnetized neutron stars
• More than meets the eye: magnetars in disguise
• A hypercritical accretion scenario in Central Compact Objects accompanied with an expected neutrino burst
• Searching for Magnetar Binaries Disrupted by Core-Collapse Supernovae
• Hypercritical accretion phase and neutrino expectation in the evolution of Cassiopeia A
• XMM-Newton and SRG/eROSITA observations of the isolated neutron star candidate 4XMM J022141.5-735632
• Neutron Stars in X-ray Binaries and their Environments
• Searching for Debris Disks around Isolated Pulsars
• Saturated symmetric nuclear matter in strong magnetic fields
• Rotational and X-ray luminosity evolution of high-B radio pulsars
• NSMAXG: A new magnetic neutron star spectral model in XSPEC
• Millisecond Pulsars in Dense Star Clusters: Evolution, Scaling Relations, and the Galactic-Center Gamma-ray Excess
• Multipolar Electromagnetic Emission of Newborn Magnetar
• Evolution of the surface magnetic field of rotating proto-neutron stars
• Magnetic field buoyancy in accretion disks of young stars
• Gravitational wave signals in the deci-Hz range from neutrinos during the proto-neutron star cooling phase
• The Enigma of GLEAM-X~J162759.5-523504.3
• Effect of magnetized phonons on electrical and thermal conductivity of neutron star crust
• A Central Compact Object in Kes 79: The hypercritical regime and neutrino expectation
• Formation of filament-like structures in the pulsar magnetosphere and the short-term variability of pulsar emission
• Optical timing studies of isolated neutron stars: Current Status
• NuSTAR results and future plans for magnetar and rotation-powered pulsar observations
• Unifying neutron star sub-populations in the supernova fallback accretion model
• Validating and improving two-fluid simulations of the magnetic field evolution in neutron star cores
• LB-1 is inconsistent with the X-ray source population and pulsar-black hole binary searches in the Milky Way
• Wind braking of magnetars: to understand magnetar's multiwave radiation properties
• Testing the Accretion-induced Field-decay and Spin-up Model for Recycled Pulsars
• ASTRO-H White Paper - Accreting Pulsars, Magnetars, and Related Sources
• Gravitational Wave Emission from Close-in Strange Quark Planets Around Strange Stars with Magnetic Interactions
• Central compact objects and their magnetic fields
• Neutron Star Astronomy with the E-ELT
• Fluxtube Dynamics in Neutron Star Cores
• An Investigation into Surface Temperature Distributions of High-B Pulsars
• Eclipsed X-ray Bursts from Magnetar SGR J1935+2154 and the Fireball Measurements
• Multiple-location matched approximation for Bessel function $J_0$ and its derivatives
• Identifying Long Radio Transients with Accompanying X-Ray Emission as Disk-Jet Precessing Black Holes: The Case of ASKAP J1832-0911
• Isolated neutron stars and studies of their interiors
• Could an hypercritical accretion be associated with the atypical magnetic-field behavior in RX J0822-4300?
• Sudden discharge of young charged magnetars as a new model for FRBs
• Extensive population synthesis of isolated neutron stars with field decay
• No Measurable Changes in Radio and X-ray Emission Surrounding Glitches in the Young Pulsar PSR J2229+6114
• The magnetorotational and Tayler instabilities in the pulsar magnetosphere
• Classification of Pulsars using Extreme Deconvolution
• The spin evolution of young pulsars