Relativistic MHD Winds from Rotating Neutron Stars

Abstract

We solve the time-dependent dynamics of axisymmetric, general relativistic MHD winds from rotating neutron stars. The mass loss rate is obtained self consistently as a solution of the MHD equations, subject to a finite thermal pressure at the stellar surface. Conditions are chosen to be representative of the neutrino driven phase in newly born magnetars, which have been considered as a possible engine for GRBs. We compute the angular momentum and energy losses as a function of $\sigma$ and compare them with the analytic expectation from the classical theory of pulsar winds. We observe the convergence to the force-free limit in the energy loss and we study the evolution of the closed zone for increasing magnetization. Results also show that the dipolar magnetic field and the presence of a closed zone do not modify significantly the acceleration and collimation properties of the wind.

Proceedings of the 363. WE-Heraeus Seminar on: Neutron Stars and Pulsars (Posters and contributed talks) Physikzentrum Bad Honnef, Germany, May.14-19, 2006, eds. W.Becker, H.H.Huang

References in corpus (2)

• Relativistic MHD Winds from Rotating Neutron Stars
• Stellar Explosions by Magnetic Towers

Cited by in corpus (3)

• Magnetar Driven Bubbles and the Origin of Collimated Outflows in Gamma-ray Bursts
• High-Energy Neutrino Signatures of Newborn Pulsars In the Local Universe
• Reverberation of pulsar wind nebulae (II): Anatomy of the "thin-shell'' evolution