Strong magnetic fields in compact stars as a macroscopic parity violation phenomenon

TL;DR

This paper reviews how parity-violating electroweak interactions can generate strong magnetic fields in various compact stars, with implications for magnetar phenomena.

Contribution

It formulates kinetic equations incorporating turbulence effects to describe magnetic field evolution in compact stars with parity violation.

Findings

Numerical solutions for magnetic spectra in quark matter.

Potential explanation for magnetar magnetic fields and bursts.

Insights into small- and large-scale magnetic field generation.

Abstract

We review the results in our recent works on the generation of strong magnetic fields in compact stars driven by the parity violating electroweak interactions between background fermions. The cases of a neutron star, a hybrid star, and a quark star are considered. We formulate the system of kinetic equations for the description of the spectra of the magnetic energy and the magnetic helicity, as well as for the chiral imbalances. Turbulence effects, which can be important for the evolution of small-scale magnetic field, are also taken into account. We find the numerical solution of these equations in case of large- and small-scale magnetic fields in quark matter. The applications of the obtained results for the generation of large-scale magnetic fields in magnetars and for the explanation of magnetar bursts are discussed.