Refinement of the timing-based estimator of pulsar magnetic fields

Abstract

Numerical simulations of realistic non-vacuum magnetospheres of isolated neutron stars have shown that pulsar spin-down luminosities depend weakly on the magnetic obliquity. This result provides the opportunity to estimate the surface magnetic field for a given radiopulsar with quite a high accuracy. In the current work, we present a refinement of the classical `magneto-dipolar' formula for pulsar magnetic fields $B_{\rm md} = (3.2\times 10^{19}\mbox{ G})\sqrt{P\dot P}$, where $P$ is the neutron star spin period. The new, robust timing-based estimator is introduced as $\log B=\log B_{\mathrm{md}}+{\Delta }_{\mathrm{B}}(M,\alpha )$, where the correction ${\Delta }_{\mathrm{B}}$ depends on the equation of state (EOS) of dense matter, the individual pulsar obliquity $\alpha$ and the mass $M$. Adopting state-of-the-art statistics for $M$ and $\alpha$ we calculate the distributions of ${\Delta }_{\mathrm{B}}$ for a representative subset of 22 EOSs that do not contradict observations. It has been found that ${\Delta }_{\mathrm{B}}$ is distributed nearly normally, with the average in the range -0.5 to -0.25 dex and standard deviation $\sigma [{\Delta }_{\mathrm{B}}]\approx$ 0.06 to 0.09 dex, depending on the adopted EOS. The latter quantity represents a formal uncertainty of the corrected estimation of $\log B$ because ${\Delta }_{\mathrm{B}}$ is weakly correlated with $\log B_{\mathrm{md}}$. At the same time, if it is assumed that every considered EOS has the same chance of occurring in nature, then another, more generalized, estimator $B^{\ast }\approx 3B_{\mathrm{md}}/7$ can be introduced providing an unbiased value of the pulsar surface magnetic field with $\sim$30 per cent uncertainty with 68 per cent confidence. Finally, we discuss the possible impact of pulsar timing irregularities on the timing-based estimation of $B$ and review the astrophysical applications of the obtained results.

arXiv comment13 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in MNRAS

References in corpus (89)

• Shapiro delay measurement of a two solar mass neutron star
• A Massive Pulsar in a Compact Relativistic Binary
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• The equation of state for nucleon matter and neutron star structure
• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• Masses, Radii, and Equation of State of Neutron Stars
• A unified equation of state of dense matter and neutron star structure
• Composition and thermodynamics of nuclear matter with light clusters
• The Nuclear Equation of State and Neutron Star Masses
• Time-dependent force-free pulsar magnetospheres: axisymmetric and oblique rotators
• Birth and Evolution of Isolated Radio Pulsars
• Hybrid stars that masquerade as neutron stars
• Neutron Star Mass Measurements. I. Radio Pulsars
• Statistical Model for a Complete Supernova Equation of State
• Mean-field description of ground-state properties of drip-line nuclei: Pairing and continuum effects
• Further explorations of Skyrme-Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov mass formulas. XII: Stiffness and stability of neutron-star matter
• Switched magnetospheric regulation of pulsar spin-down
• A periodically active pulsar giving insight into magnetospheric physics
• Relativistic Mean-Field Theory and the High-Density Nuclear Equation of State
• The Evolution of Compact Binary Star Systems
• Unifying the observational diversity of isolated neutron stars via magneto-thermal evolution models
• Relativistic Equation of State of Nuclear Matter for Supernova Explosion
• On the Mass Distribution and Birth Masses of Neutron Stars
• The Neutron Star Mass Distribution
• An analysis of the timing irregularities for 366 pulsars
• Evidence for a Massive Neutron Star from a Radial-Velocity Study of the Companion to the Black Widow Pulsar PSR B1957+20
• Signals of the QCD phase transition in core-collapse supernovae
• Symmetry Energy I: Semi-Infinite Matter
• New Hyperon Equations of State for Supernovae and Neutron Stars in Density-dependent Hadron Field Theory
• Neutron star stiff equation of state derived from cooling phases of the X-ray burster 4U 1724-307
• Magnetic Field Evolution in Neutron Star Crusts due to the Hall Effect and Ohmic Decay
• On the Lorentz structure of the symmetry energy
• Inner crust of neutron stars with mass-fitted Skyrme functionals
• A variable absorption feature in the X-ray spectrum of a magnetar
• On the birthrates of Galactic neutron stars
• Physical parameters of the high-mass X-ray binary 4U1700-37
• Three-dimensional numerical simulations of the pulsar magentoshere: Preliminary results
• Unified treatment of sub-saturation stellar matter at zero and finite temperature
• Core-collapse supernova explosions triggered by a quark-hadron phase transition during the early post-bounce phase
• Time-Dependent 3D Magnetohydrodynamic Pulsar Magnetospheres: Oblique Rotators
• Time evolution of pulsar obliquity angle from 3D simulations of magnetospheres
• Revised Pulsar Spindown
• Further Evidence for the Bimodal Distribution of Neutron Star Masses
• Equation of state and thickness of the inner crust of neutron stars
• Evolution of the Magnetic Field Structure of the Crab Pulsar
• A High Braking Index for a Pulsar
• The millisecond pulsar mass distribution: Evidence for bimodality and constraints on the maximum neutron star mass
• The pulsar force-free magnetosphere linked to its striped wind: time-dependent pseudo-spectral simulations
• Asymmetric nuclear matter and neutron star properties
• Population synthesis of isolated Neutron Stars with magneto--rotational evolution
• Radiative Precession of an Isolated Neutron Star
• R-modes of accreting hyperon stars as persistent sources of gravitational waves
• The population of pulsars with interpulses and the implications for beam evolution
• Pulsar braking index: A test of emission models?
• Evidence for Heating of Neutron Stars by Magnetic Field Decay
• Pulsar timing noise from superfluid turbulence
• 30 Glitches in slow pulsars
• Pulsar magnetic alignment and the pulsewidth-age relation
• Rotational evolution of the Crab pulsar in the wind braking model
• Braking Index of Isolated Pulsars
• Observational constraints on the neutron star mass distribution
• Pulsar timing irregularities and the imprint of magnetic field evolution
• Phase resolved spectroscopic study of the isolated neutron star RBS 1223 (1RXS J130848.6+212708)
• Isolated pulsar spin evolution on the P-Pdot Diagram
• Constraints on the Mass and Radius of the Neutron Star XTE J1807-294
• Magnetic fields of neutron stars in X-ray binaries
• A strong $\ddot{\nu }-\dot{\nu }$ correlation in radio pulsars with implications for torque variations
• Evolution of non-spherical pulsars with plasma-filled magnetospheres
• On the role of the current loss in radio pulsar evolution
• Timing and Interstellar Scattering of Thirty-five Distant Pulsars Discovered in the PALFA Survey
• The influence of nondipolar magnetic field and neutron star precession on braking indexes of radiopulsars
• Inclination angle and braking index evolution of pulsars with plasma-filled magnetosphere: application to high braking index of PSR J1640-4631
• Radio pulsars: the search for truth
• A New, Low Braking Index For the LMC Pulsar B0540-69
• Monotonic and cyclic components of radio pulsars spin-down
• Why do the braking indices of pulsars span a range of more than 100 millions?
• Strange quark matter in explosive astrophysical systems
• Magnetic field estimates for accreting neutron stars in massive binary systems and models of magnetic field decay
• Possible evolution of the pulsar braking index from larger than three to about one
• Fluctuating neutron star magnetosphere: braking indices of eight pulsars, frequency second derivatives of 222 pulsars and 15 magnetars
• Braking Index of Isolated Pulsars II: A novel two-dipole model of pulsar magnetism
• Statistics of interpulse radio pulsars - the key to solving the alignment/counter-alignment problem
• Timing Noise in Pulsars and Magnetars and the Magnetospheric Moment of Inertia
• A note on the cyclic evolution of the pulsar magnetosphere
• On the second derivatives of periods and braking indices in radio pulsars
• Pulsar current revisited
• Evidence of longterm cyclic evolution of radio pulsar periods
• Pulsar Magnetospheres and Pulsar Winds
• A novel look at the pulsar force-free magnetosphere

Cited by in corpus (6)

• Magnetic angle evolution in accreting neutron stars
• XMM-Newton observations of a gamma-ray pulsar J0633+0632: pulsations, cooling and large-scale emission
• The apparent decay of pulsar magnetic fields
• Imprint of magnetic obliquity in apparent spin-down of radio pulsars
• Investigating the neutron star physics through observations of several young pulsars in the dipole-field re-emergence scenario
• Evidence for the spin-kick alignment of pulsars from the statistics of their magnetic inclinations