Magneto-thermal evolution in the cores of adolescent neutron stars: The Grad-Shafranov equilibrium is never reached in the 'strong-coupling' regime

TL;DR

This study develops a numerical scheme to simulate long-term magneto-thermal evolution in neutron star cores under strong-coupling conditions, revealing that magnetic fields evolve minimally during the hot, early phase, preventing the attainment of Grad-Shafranov equilibrium.

Contribution

First long-term simulations of magneto-thermal evolution in the strong-coupling regime of neutron star cores, showing negligible magnetic evolution during the hot phase.

Findings

Magnetic feedback on thermal evolution is negligible.

Grad-Shafranov equilibrium is not reached in the strong-coupling regime.

Magnetic field evolution is significant only in the cooler, weak-coupling regime.

Abstract

At the high temperatures present inside recently formed neutron stars ($T\gtrsim 5\times 10^{8}\, \text{K}$), the particles in their cores are in the "strong-coupling" regime, in which collisional forces make them behave as a single, stably stratified, and thus non-barotropic fluid. In this regime, axially symmetric hydromagnetic quasi-equilibrium states are possible, which are only constrained to have a vanishing azimuthal Lorentz force. In such equilibria, the particle species are not in chemical ($\beta$) equilibrium, so $\beta$ decays (Urca reactions) tend to restore the chemical equilibrium, inducing fluid motions that change the magnetic field configuration. If the stars remained hot for a sufficiently long time, this evolution would eventually lead to a chemical equilibrium state, in which the fluid is barotropic and the magnetic field, if axially-symmetric, satisfies the non-linear Grad-Shafranov equation. In this work, we present a numerical scheme that decouples the magnetic and thermal evolution, enabling to efficiently perform, for the first time, long-term magneto-thermal simulations in this regime for different magnetic field strengths and geometries. Our results demonstrate that, even for magnetar-strength fields $\gtrsim 10^{16} \, \mathrm{G}$, the feedback from the magnetic evolution on the thermal evolution is negligible. Thus, as the core passively cools, the Urca reactions quickly become inefficient at restoring chemical equilibrium, so the magnetic field evolves very little, and the Grad-Shafranov equilibrium is not attained in this regime. Therefore, any substantial evolution of the core magnetic field must occur later, in the cooler "weak-coupling" regime ($T\lesssim 5\times 10^8 \, \mathrm{K}$), in which Urca reactions are effectively frozen and ambipolar diffusion becomes relevant.