Abstract
SEVERAL authors have recently argued for the necessity of decay of the surface magnetic field of neutron stars with a characteristic time of a few million years in order to explain the details of the observed pulsar sample. Gunn and Ostriker1 have summarized these arguments, pointing to the three empirical pieces of evidence which imply such decay: (1) the scarcity of long period pulsars, (2) the apparent decrease in surface magnetic field with age, and (3) the decrease in pulsed radio luminosity with age.
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References
Gunn, J. E., and Ostriker, J. P., Astrophys. J., 160, 979 (1970).
Setti, G., and Woltjer, L., Astrophys. J. Lett., 159, L87 (1970).
Pacini, F., Nature, 216, 567 (1967).
Ostriker, J. P., and Gunn, J. E., Astrophys. J., 157, 1395 (1969).
Goldreich, P., and Julian, W., Astrophys. J., 157, 869 (1969).
Maran, S. P., and Modali, S. B., Earth and Extraterrestrial Sciences (in the press).
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HOLT, S., RAMATY, R. Pulsar Distributions without Magnetic Decay. Nature 228, 351–352 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/228351a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/228351a0
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