Issue |
A&A
Volume 410, Number 3, November II 2003
|
|
---|---|---|
Page(s) | L33 - L36 | |
Section | Letters | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:20031459 | |
Published online | 17 November 2003 |
Letter to the Editor
Mean-field dynamo action in protoneutron stars
1
INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, Catania, Italy
2
INFN, Sezione di Catania, Catania, Italy
3
SISSA, International School for Advanced Studies, Trieste, Italy
4
INFN, Sezione di Trieste, Trieste, Italy
5
AF Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, St. Petersburg, Russia
6
Isaac Newton Institute of Chile in Eastern Europe and Eurasia, St. Petersburg, Russia
Corresponding author: V. Urpin, vadim.urpin@uv.es
Received:
16
July
2003
Accepted:
18
September
2003
We have investigated the turbulent mean-field dynamo action in protoneutron stars that are subject to convective and neutron finger instabilities. While the first one develops mostly in the inner regions of the star, the second one is favoured in the outer regions, where the Rossby number is much smaller and a mean-field dynamo action is more efficient. By solving the mean-field induction equation we have computed the critical spin period below which no dynamo action is possible and found it to be ~1 s for a wide range of stellar models. Because this critical period is substantially longer than the characteristic spin period of very young pulsars, we expect that a mean-field dynamo will be effective for most protoneutron stars.
Key words: MHD / pulsars: general / stars: neutron / magnetic fields
© ESO, 2003
Current usage metrics show cumulative count of Article Views (full-text article views including HTML views, PDF and ePub downloads, according to the available data) and Abstracts Views on Vision4Press platform.
Data correspond to usage on the plateform after 2015. The current usage metrics is available 48-96 hours after online publication and is updated daily on week days.
Initial download of the metrics may take a while.