Recycled pulsars with multipolar magnetospheres from accretion-induced magnetic burial

TL;DR

This paper explores how accretion-induced magnetic burial in recycled pulsars naturally leads to multipolar magnetospheres, explaining recent observations of non-antipodal hot spots on PSR J0030+0451.

Contribution

It demonstrates that magnetic multipolarity arises from the burial process and provides a method to calculate multipole moments based on accreted mass and crustal properties.

Findings

Multipolar magnetic fields are expected in recycled pulsars due to magnetic burial.

Grad-Shafranov equilibria can be used to compute multipole moments.

Magnetic field configurations depend on accreted mass and crustal equation of state.

Abstract

Many millisecond pulsars are thought to be old neutron stars spun up (`recycled') during an earlier accretion phase. They typically have relatively weak ($\lesssim 10^{9} \text{ G}$) dipole field strengths, consistent with accretion-induced magnetic burial. Recent data from the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer indicate that hot spots atop the recycled pulsar PSR J0030$+$0451 are not antipodal, so that the magnetic field cannot be that of a centered dipole. In this paper it is shown that multipolarity is naturally expected in the burial scenario because of equatorial field line compression. Grad-Shafranov equilibria are constructed to show how magnetic multipole moments can be calculated in terms of various properties, such as the amount of accreted mass and the crustal equation of state.