Protoneutron star dynamos: pulsars, magnetars, and radio-silent X-ray emitting neutron stars

¹ INAF, Osservatorio Astrofisico di Catania, via S. Sofia 78, 95123 Catania, Italy e-mail: abo@oact.inaf.it
² INFN, Sezione di Catania, via S. Sofia 72, 95123 Catania, Italy
³ A.F. Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology, 194021 St. Petersburg, Russia

Received: 4 November 2005
Accepted: 15 February 2006

Abstract

We discuss the mean-field dynamo action in protoneutron stars that are subject to instabilities during the early evolutionary phase. The mean field is generated in the neutron-finger unstable region where the Rossby number is ∼1 and mean-field dynamo is efficient. Depending on the rotation rate, the mean-field dynamo can lead to the formation of three different types of pulsars. If the initial period of the protoneutron star is short, then the generated large-scale field is very strong ( G) and exceeds the small-scale field at the neutron star surface. If rotation is moderate, then the pulsars are formed with more or less standard dipole fields ( G) but with surface small-scale magnetic fields stronger than the dipole field. If rotation is very slow, then the mean-field dynamo does not operate, and the neutron star has no global field. Nevertheless, strong small-scale fields are generated in such pulsars, and they can manifest themselves as objects with very low spin-down rate but with a strong magnetic field inferred from the spectral features.