Magnetic Field Decay Due to the Wave-Particle Resonances in the Outer Crust of the Neutron Star

TL;DR

This study uses relativistic Particle-In-Cell simulations to explore how wave-particle resonances and turbulence-driven cascades influence magnetic field decay in the outer crust of neutron stars, highlighting anisotropic electron heating and alternative dissipation mechanisms.

Contribution

It introduces a novel simulation approach to model magnetic field decay in neutron star crusts, emphasizing the roles of wave-particle resonances and turbulence in the decay process.

Findings

Whistler cascade transports magnetic energy perpendicular to uniform fields.

Electrons become anisotropic, with low-energy electrons heated by Landau resonance.

High-energy electrons are heated by cyclotron resonance, leading to isotropic distribution tails.

Abstract

Bearing in mind the application to the outer crust of the neutron stars (NSs), we investigate the magnetic field decay by means of the fully relativistic Particle-In-Cell simulations. Numerical computations are carried out in 2-dimensions, in which the initial magnetic fields are set to be composed both of the uniform magnetic fields that model the global fields penetrating the NS and of the turbulent magnetic fields that would be originated from the Hall cascade of the large-scale turbulence. Our results show that the whistler cascade of the turbulence transports the magnetic energy preferentially in the direction perpendicular to the uniform magnetic fields. It is also found that the distribution function of electrons becomes anisotropic because electrons with lower energies are predominantly heated in the direction parallel to the uniform magnetic fields due to the Landau resonance, while electrons with higher energies are heated mainly by the cyclotron resonance that makes the distribution function isotropic for the high energy tails. Furthermore we point out that the degree of anisotropy takes maximum as a function of the initial turbulent magnetic energy. As an alternative to the conventional ohmic dissipation, we propose that the magnetic fields in the outer crust of NSs, cascading down to the electron inertial scale via the whistler turbulence, would decay predominantly by the dissipation processes through the Landau damping and the cyclotron resonance.