Quantum electrodynamical corrections to a magnetic dipole in general relativity

Abstract

Magnetized neutron stars are privileged places where strong electromagnetic fields as high as $\BQ=4.4\times10^9$~T exist, giving rise to non-linear corrections to Maxwell equations described by quantum electrodynamics (QED). These corrections need to be included to the general relativistic (GR) description of a magnetic dipole supposed to be anchored in the neutron star. In this paper, these QED and GR perturbations to the standard flat space-time dipole are calculated to the lowest order in the fine structure constant~${\alpha }_{\mathrm{sf}}$ and to any order in the ratio $\Rs/R$ where $R$ is the neutron star radius and $\Rs$ its Schwarzschild radius. Following our new 3+1~formalism developed in a previous work, we compute the multipolar non-linear corrections to this dipole and demonstrate the presence of a small dipolar~$\ell =1$ and hexapolar~$\ell =3$ component.

Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journal

References in corpus (4)

• Physics of Strongly Magnetized Neutron Stars
• Magnetars: the physics behind observations
• Corona of Magnetars
• Multipolar electromagnetic fields around neutron stars: exact vacuum solutions and related properties

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Theory of pulsar magnetosphere and wind
• General relativistic models for rotating magnetized neutron stars in conformally flat spacetime
• Strongly magnetized rotating dipole in general relativity
• QED effects are negligible for neutron-star spin-down
• Schwarzschild spacetime immersed in test nonlinear electromagnetic fields
• The force-free dipole magnetosphere in non-linear electrodynamics