TY - CHAP

T1 - Statistics of Magnetic Fluxes of Massive Stars and the Enigma of the Origin of Magnetic Fields in Neutron Stars

AU - Kholtygin, A.F.

AU - Igoshev, A.P.

AU - Fabrika, S.N.

PY - 2011

Y1 - 2011

N2 - Statistical properties of mean magnetic fields and magnetic fluxes of normal stars are investigated based on data from the catalogue of magnetic fields by Bychkov et al. (2009) and recent measurements from the literature. As a measure of the mean field, we use the rms longitudinal magnetic field B. We estimated the magnetic fluxes F of massive stars and found that they have a log-normal distribution with the logarithm of mean flux log(F) = 27.7. A similar shape of the magnetic flux distribution holds for the entire neutron star population, but with a much smaller mean value of log(F) = 24.5 in contradiction with the hypothesis by Ferrario and Wickramasinghe (2006) that magnetic fields of neutron stars have a fossil origin, and that magnetic fluxes are conserved over the stellar evolution up to the neutron star formation. On the other hand, the magnetic flux distribution for magnetars is similar to that for OB stars, but more narrow. A special case is the millisecond pulsars with relatively small magnetic flux

AB - Statistical properties of mean magnetic fields and magnetic fluxes of normal stars are investigated based on data from the catalogue of magnetic fields by Bychkov et al. (2009) and recent measurements from the literature. As a measure of the mean field, we use the rms longitudinal magnetic field B. We estimated the magnetic fluxes F of massive stars and found that they have a log-normal distribution with the logarithm of mean flux log(F) = 27.7. A similar shape of the magnetic flux distribution holds for the entire neutron star population, but with a much smaller mean value of log(F) = 24.5 in contradiction with the hypothesis by Ferrario and Wickramasinghe (2006) that magnetic fields of neutron stars have a fossil origin, and that magnetic fluxes are conserved over the stellar evolution up to the neutron star formation. On the other hand, the magnetic flux distribution for magnetars is similar to that for OB stars, but more narrow. A special case is the millisecond pulsars with relatively small magnetic flux

M3 - Article in an anthology

SN - 978-5-7422-3156-1

SP - 303

EP - 313

BT - Proc. of Conf. “Magnetic Stars”, SAO, Russia, August 27– Sept. 1, 2010

PB - САО РАН

ER -