The Tayler instability and the Hall effect in protoneutron stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how the Hall effect and Tayler instability influence magnetic field configurations in protoneutron stars, affecting their magnetic stability and observable brightness asymmetries.

Contribution

It introduces the combined impact of the Hall effect and Tayler instability on magnetic field stability in protoneutron stars, highlighting the sign dependence of the Hall effect.

Findings

Hall effect sign influences magnetic stability domains.

Toroidal magnetic fields differ between hemispheres due to differential rotation.

Brightness asymmetry in neutron stars may result from magnetic suppression of heat conductivity.

Abstract

Collapse calculations indicate that the hot newly born protoneutron stars (PNS) rotate differentially so that strong toroidal magnetic field components should exist in the outer crust where also the Hall effect appears to be important when the Hall parameter \hat\beta=\omega_B \tau is of order unity. The amplitudes of the induced toroidal magnetic fields are limited from above by the Tayler instability. An important characteristic of the Hall effect is its distinct dependence on the {\em sign} of the magnetic field. We find for fast rotation that positive (negative) Hall parameters essentially reduce (increase) the stability domain. It is thus concluded that the toroidal field belts in PNS induced by their differential rotation should have different amplitudes in both hemispheres which later are frozen in. Due to the effect of magnetic suppression of the heat conductivity also the brightness of the two hemispheres should be different. As a possible example for our scenario the isolated neutron star RBS 1223 is considered which has been found to exhibit different X-ray brightness at both hemispheres.