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Paper: Magnetic Fields and Rotation of Compact Stars
Volume: 334, 14th European Workshop on White Dwarfs
Page: 281
Authors: Ferrario, L.; Wickramasinghe, D.T.
Abstract: In an accompanying contribution to this conference, we have argued that the spread in the magnetic fluxes of the Ap and Bp stars is similar to that of the majority of magnetic white dwarfs providing empirical evidence that a significant fraction of the magnetic flux is conserved during stellar evolution off the main sequence to the white dwarf phase. By analogy, we argue that the magnetic fields of neutron stars may also be explained if magnetic flux is nearly conserved during stellar evolution. Since massive stars do not go through a fully convective Hayashi phase, the progenitors of the neutron stars (early B-type and O-type stars) may all be magnetic at some level with the lower limit set by conditions present in the interstellar medium at the time of star formation. A field range of a few Gauss to a few KiloGauss on the main sequence would explain the observed field range (~ 1011 − 1015 G).

Rotation appears to be correlated with magnetic field in the isolated magnetic white dwarfs. We argue that a similar correlation may also be present in the neutron stars and argue that the magnetars may be the counterparts of the slowly rotating high field magnetic white dwarfs.

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