Ntotsikas, D., Gourgouliatos, K. N., Contopoulos, I. and Lander, S. K. (2024) Twisted magnetar magnetospheres. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 527 (3). pp. 6691-6701. ISSN 0035-8711
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Abstract
Magnetar magnetospheres are strongly twisted, and are able to power sudden energetic events through the rapid release of stored electromagnetic energy. In this paper, we investigate twisted relativistic force-free axisymmetric magnetospheres of rotating neutron stars. We obtain numerical solutions of such configurations using the method of simultaneous relaxation for the magnetic field inside and outside the light-cylinder. We introduce a toroidal magnetic field in the region of closed field-lines that is associated with a poloidal electric current distribution in that region, and explore various mathematical expressions for that distribution. We find that, by increasing the twist, a larger fraction of magnetic field-lines crosses the light-cylinder and opens up to infinity, thus increasing the size of the polar caps and enhancing the spin-down rate. We also find that, for moderately to strongly twisted magnetospheres, the region of closed field-lines ends at some distance inside the light-cylinder. We discuss the implications of these solutions on the variation of magnetar spin-down rates, moding and nulling of pulsars, the relation between the angular shear and the twist, and the overall shape of the magnetosphere.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | Funding Information: KNG acknowledges funding from grant FK 81641 ‘Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics’, ELKE, Special Account for Research Funds of the University of Patras. |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | methods: numerical,mhd,astronomy and astrophysics,space and planetary science ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/3100/3103 |
Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Physics (former - to 2024) |
UEA Research Groups: | Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Quantum Matter Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Numerical Simulation, Statistics & Data Science |
Related URLs: | |
Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
Date Deposited: | 02 Jul 2024 12:32 |
Last Modified: | 17 Dec 2024 01:40 |
URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/95761 |
DOI: | 10.1093/mnras/stad3511 |
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