High Magnetic Field Rotation-powered Pulsars

Abstract

Anomalous X-ray pulsars and soft gamma repeaters have recently emerged as a unified class of neutron stars, identified by dramatic X-ray and gamma-ray outbursts and via luminous X-ray pulsations, both thought to be powered by the decay of an enormous internal magnetic field. This "magnetar" hypothesis has raised the question of these objects' physical relationship with conventional rotation-powered pulsars (RPPs). The highest magnetic-field RPPs might therefore be expected to be transition objects between the two populations. The recently reported magnetar-like outburst of PSR J1846-0258, previously thought to be purely rotation-powered, clearly supports this suggestion. Here we review the observational properties of the highest magnetic-field RPPs known, and show some common characteristics that are notable among RPPs, which are plausibly related to their high fields. Using these objects, we consider the evidence for proposed "magneto-thermal evolution" in neutron stars, and argue that while some exists, it is not yet conclusive.

6 pages, 4 figures, Conference proceeding of "ASTROphysics of Neutron Stars 2010 -- a conference in honor of M. Ali Alpar", 2-6 August 2010, Cesme, Izmir, Turkey

References in corpus (3)

• Post-outburst Observations of the Magnetically Active Pulsar J1846-0258: a new braking index, increased timing noise, and radiative recovery
• XMM-Newton X-ray Observation of the High-Magnetic-Field Radio Pulsar PSR J1734--3333
• Glitches in Anomalous X-ray Pulsars

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