Magnetorotational Instabilities and Pulsar Kick Velocities

TL;DR

This paper explores how magnetorotational instabilities in newborn neutron stars can convert rotational energy into kinetic energy, potentially explaining their high velocities, with implications for magnetic field strengths and rotation periods.

Contribution

It proposes a mechanism linking magnetorotational instabilities to pulsar kick velocities, emphasizing the role of rapid rotation and intense magnetic fields during neutron star formation.

Findings

Neutron stars can acquire high velocities through energy conversion during magnetorotational instability.

The instability occurs on millisecond timescales with magnetic fields reaching 10^{16} G.

The process explains observed pulsar velocities based on initial rotation and magnetic conditions.

Abstract

At the end of their birth process, neutron stars can be subject to a magnetorotational instability in which a conversion of kinetic energy of differential rotation into radiation and kinetic energies is expected to occur at the Alfv\'en timescale of few ms. This birth energy conversion predicts the observed large velocity of neutron stars if during the evolving of this instability the periods are of few ms and the magnetic fields reach values of $10^{16}$G.