Magnetic field dissipation in nucleonic neutron star cores

Abstract

AbstractWe study the long-term heating due to magnetic field decay in the core of neutron star. Two cases for the nucleonic core are considered: normal and strongly superconducting. We give simple scaling relations (depending on the internal stellar temperature and the averaged magnetic field in the core) to estimate the magnetic field decay rate for the most important dissipation processes. Comparison to properties of observed neutron stars suggests that heating due to the magnetic field decay is (at least partially) responsible for the thermal states of middle-aged magnetars and highly-magnetized isolated neutron stars with ages of 1 — 10 Myr.