Pulsars: Cosmic Permanent 'Neutromagnets'?

TL;DR

The paper proposes that pulsars could be spin-polarized neutron stars acting as cosmic permanent magnets, potentially explaining key observational features like beam stability and magnetic field limits.

Contribution

It introduces a speculative model suggesting pulsars are neutron stars with permanent magnet-like properties, offering explanations for observed pulsar phenomena.

Findings

Explains the stability of pulsar beams

Accounts for the magnetic field upper limit

Proposes a new magnetic origin for pulsar behavior

Abstract

We argue that pulsars may be spin-polarized neutron stars, i.e. cosmic permanent magnets. This would simply explain several observational facts about pulsars, including the 'beacon effect' itself i.e. the static/stable misalignment of rotational and magnetic axes, the extreme temporal stability of the pulses and the existence of an upper limit for the magnetic field strength - coinciding with the one observed in "magnetars". Although our model admittedly is speculative, this latter fact seems to us unlikely to be pure coincidence.