Table Of ContentNeutron Stars and Their Birth Events
NATO ASI Series
Advanced SCienceInstitutesseries
ASeriespresentingtheresultsofactivitiessponsoredbytheNATOScienceCommittee,
whichaimsatthedissemination ofadvancedscientificandtechnologicalknowledge,
witha viewtostrengtheninglinksbetweenscientificcommunities.
TheSeriesispublishedbyan internationalboardofpublishersinconjunctionwiththe
NATOScientificAffairsDivision
A LifeSciences Plenum PublishingCorporation
B Physics London and NewYork
C Mathematical KluwerAcademicPublishers
and PhysicalSCiences Dordrecht, Boston and London
D Behaviouraland SocialSciences
E Applied Sciences
F Computerand SystemsSciences Springer-Verlag
G EcologicalSciences Berlin,Heidelberg, NewYork, London,
H Cell Biology ParisandTokyo
SeriesC: Mathematicaland Physical Sciences-Vol. 300
Neutron Stars and
Their Birth Events
edited by
Wolfgang Kundt
InstituttOrAstrophysik,
UniversitatBonn,
Bonn, F.R.G.
KluwerAcademic Publishers
Dordrecht / Boston / London
PublishedincooperationwithNATOScientificAffairsDivision
ProceedingsoftheNATOAdvancedStudyInstituteon
NeutronStars:TheirBirth, Evolution, RadiationandWinds
Erice,Sicily, haly
September5-17, 1988
LibraryofCongressCatalogingIn PublicationData
NATO Advanced Study Institute on Neutron S:ars. Their Birth Evolution.
Radiation. an~ Winds (1988 : E~lce. Italyl
Neutron stars and their birth events proceedings of the NATO
Advanced Study Institute on Neutron Stars. TheIr BIrth, ~volutio~,
Radiation. and Winds. Erice, SIcily, Italy, 5-17 September 1998 I
edIted by WolFgang Kundt.
p. cm. -- (NATO A~I se~les. Series C. Mathe~atical and
physical sCiences; v. 3001
·Published in cooperatiOn with NATO ScientIFIc Affairs DivIsion.·
1. Neutron stars--Congresses. 2. Pulsars--Congresses.
3. Supernova remnants--Congresses. I. Kundt. Wolfgang. II. North
Atlantic Treaty Organization. Scientific AFfairs DivIsion.
III. Title. IV. Series.
OS8Q3.N4N37 1988
523.8·874--dc20 89-26695
CIP
ISBN-I3:978-94-010-6718-8 e-1SBN-13:978-94-009-0515-3
DOl: 10.1007/978-94-009-0515-3
Publishedby KluwerAcademicPublishers,
P.O. Box 17,3300AADordrecht,The Netherlands.
KluwerAcademicPublishers incorporatesthepublishingprogrammesof
D. Reidel, MartinusNijhoff, DrW.Junkand MTPPress.
Soldanddistributedinthe U.S.A. and Canada
byKluwerAcademicPublishers,
101 PhilipDrive, Norwell, MA02061, U.S.A.
In allothercountries, sold anddistributed
byKluwerAcademicPublishersGroup,
P.O. Box322,3300 AH Dordrecht,The Netherlands.
Printedonacid-freepaper
All Rights Reserved
©1990by KluwerAcademicPublishers
Softcoverreprintofthehardcover 1stedition 1990
No part of the material protected by this copyright notice may be reproduced or
utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photo·
copying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permissionfrom thecopyrightowner.
TABI.E OF CONTENTS
PREFACE VII
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS XI
GROUP PHOTOGRAPH XII
W. Kundt
OBSERVED NEUTRON-STAR PROPERTIES 1
THE CRAB NEBULA AND ITS PULSAR 22
THE BLACK-HOLE CANDIDATES 30
NEUTRON-STAR ACCRETION 35
SUPERNOVA EXPLOSIONS AND THEIR EJECTED SHELLS 40
ALTERNATIVE SCENARIOS RELATING TO NEUTRON STARS 51
S.R. Kulkarni
RADIO PULSARS: NEW and OLD 59
G. Srinivasan
THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN PULSARS AND SUPERNOVA REMNANTS 91
MILLISECOND PULSARS: A NEW POPULATION OF GAMMA RAY
SOURCES? 107
W.H. Sorrell
MILLISECOND PULSARS WERE BORN SPINNING FAST 121
Y. Sang, G. Chanmugam, S. Tsuruta
MAGNETIC FIEI.D DECAY IN COOLING NEUTRON STARS 127
D. Bhattacharya
THERNAL FIELD GROWTH IN NEUTRON STARS: AN ALTERNATIVE
TO 'INJECTION'? 133
vi
M. Camenzind
2D RELATIVISTIC PULSAR WINDS FROM RAPIDLY ROTATING
NEUTRON STARS 139
F. Verbunt
THE ORIGIN AND EVOLUTION OF X-RAY BINARIES AND LOW-
MAGNETIC-FIELD RADIO PULSARS 179
J. van Paradijs, W.H.G. Lewin
GALACTIC POPULATIONS OF X-RAY SOURCES 219
X-RAY BURSTS (OF TYPE 1) 231
MASS-RADIUS RELATION OF NEUTRON STARS 239
THE RAPID BURSTER (MXB 1730-335) 246
QUASI-PERIODIC OSCILLATIONS (QPO) 248
R.G. Strom
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS I: HISTORICAL EVENTS 253
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS II: SHELLS 263
SUPERNOVA REMNANTS III: EXOTICS 274
D. Branch
WHICH TYPES OF SUPERNOVAE LEAVE NEUTRON STARS? 281
P. Lundqvist
THE CIRCUMSTELLAR ENVIRONMENT OF SN 1987 A 289
S.A.E.G. Fallf!
DIFFUSIVE SHOCK ACCELERATION OF RELATIVISTIC PARTICLES 303
D.G. Banhat.ti
SYt-1HETRY PROPERTIES OF THE BIFURCATED RADIO STRUCTURE
ASSOCIATED WITH ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI 319
SUBJECT INDEX 327
PREFACE
This volume is the documentation of the second Course on
'Neutron Stars, Active Galactic Nuclei and Jets', held at
Erice in September 1988.
This second Course was devoted to our knowledge about
neutron-star sources. The poster spoke of: pulsars, accreting
X-ray sources and jet englnes, perhaps also UHE pulsars, X
ra~' bursters and black-hole candidat.es. Neutron stars have
even been proposed as the primary cosmic-ray boosters. Most
of theil' properties are stil1 controversial, such as their
birth mechanism (neutrino versus magnetic piston), internal
structure (neutrons, quarks, strange particles), magnetic,
thermal and spin histories, wind generation (hydrogen versus
pair plasma, radiation versus centrifugal pressure),
magnetospheric structure and accretion modes (along field
lines versus quasi-Keplerian).
The listed controversies have largely survived through
the Course and entered into the proceedings. Several
lecturers speak of 'magnetic-field decay' in neutron stars,
of the 'recycling' of old pulsars, and of 'accretion-induced
collapse' of white dwarfs as though such processes were
textbook knowledge. Terms and abbreviations like RPSR
(=recycled pulsar), spinup line, AIC, and ADC (=accretion
disk corona) help to foster the assumptions. It is not clear
to me at this time whether any of these notions has an
application to reality.
Feynman had confidence in quantum electrodynamics when
he could (correctly) predict. Dirac's number, t.he magnetic
moment )A of the electron in natural unit.s, to within ten
significant figures: )-l2mc/efl = 1.001159652193. Astrophysics
is not equally confirmed. Even our planet Earth holds plenty
of secrets: E,"ery educat.ed geophysicist 'knows' that oU and
coal are of biogenic origin, i.e. consist of former plants
left to themselves at. high pressure and temperature, and t.hat
salt deposits are evaporated seas; yet there are a handful of
respectable sceptics, for some hundred years, who are
impressed by the order, quantity, and cleanliness of the
deposits and who are convinced that most of it (~ 90% by
mass) is the result of outgassing, carbon enrichment.,
dehydration, and diffusive separation.
Our experimental knowledge decreases when we leave Earth
and take interest in the other planets and the moons. It
decreases when we study the Sun, and again when we study more
distant stars. It decreases when we leave the Galaxy for
other galaxies and galaxy clusters, and reaches its minimum -
vii
viii
if such exists - when we beg the question of the origin of
the Universe. With increasing dist.ance. we lose informat.ion
and replace it by hypotheses. in order to make predictions.
There is nothing wrong wit.h such a procedure. The
scientific approach consists of replacing gaps in our
knowledge by plausible hypotheses and exploring their
implications to the point where they might lead to
inconsist.encies. But even at the speed of modern research.
such inconsistencies can take decades to grow obvious. By
that time, generations of publications have been printed and
have used the term "general agreement" or "fact" for what
earlier approaches called an assumption. This long timescale
of falsification makes astrophysics more vulnerable to tacit
assumptions than laboratory physics and causes scientific
evolution to happen in the form of revolutions, in the sense
highlighted by Thomas Kuhn (MIT, 1970).
Tacit assumptions help keeping a presentation simple.
yet. they can hamper our insight when they turn out to be
wrong. Examples of what I have in mind are listed on pages
51/2 below. In his book 'Surely you're joking. Mr. Feynman',
the author states on page 341: "Details that could throw
doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know
them". The whole chapter 'Cargo Cult Science' explains what
he means by it.
So what can he said about t.his book? The reader will
find different explanations of the same facts by the
different aut.hors. He or she should not deplore but rather
appreciate such a situation. Rp.search need not. be unanimous.
It benefits from cont.roversies. When Rahel Dewey calls her
review of radio pulsars (in NATO ASI C 262) "the standard
three-quarter-truths". she is aware of the situation.
An example may clarify my point: how old are the ms
pul sars? Are they as old as t.heir spindown ages P/2P
(=108 . 5±1 yr) indicate, or are they as young as their
kinematic ages (z-z.)/z (=10" 5:1: 1. 5 yr) suggest? Are their
companions as old as their colour temperature seems to tell
us? Has their magnetic moment (half-way) decayed or not? Ha~e
they been recycled or born fast? In a sit.uation as confused
as this, I don't think we are in need of a quick decision but
rather of an open mind. All inferences about their
birthrates. histories and futures strongly depend on their
age.
Another astrophysical hypothesis of importance is
whether or not diffusive shock acceleration works, i.e.
whether or not particles can be efficiently boosted to
relativistic energies 'in situ', in st.rong interstellar or
extragalact.ic shocks. The question is of relevance both to
the non-thermal radiation of supernova shells, to the
generat.ion of the cosmic rays. and to the supersonic jets of
the hipolar-flow sources. On page 303, Samuel Falle argues
that diffusive shock acceleration cannot be very efficient..
ix
Before this preface comes to an end, I should I ike to
cordially thank Antonino Zichichi and his team at the CCSEM
for their strong support; further NATO for the ASI award and
the European Physical Scoiety and National Science Foundation
for additional help. I should also like to thank Christine
Tilly-Schrader and Kathy SchrDfer from the Bonn astrophysics
Institute for years of reliable service, and the photographic
laboratory of our neighbouring Max-Planck Institute for ready
help. Finally, my thoughts go to the participants - both
lecturers, students and company - who made the Course a big
event in my scientific life.
Bonn, September 1989
Wolfgang Kundt
Institut fDr Astrophysik
der Universitiit
LIST OF PARTICIPANTS
Ames, Susan l.f.R.A., Bonn, F.R.G.
Banhatti, Dilip Madurai-Kamaraj Univ., India
Baykal, Altan Middle East Techn. Univ.,Ankara, Turkey
Bhattacharya, Dipankar R.R.I., Bangalore, India
Branch, David Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.
Camenzind, Max Landessternwarte, Heidelberg, F.R.G.
Carioli, Maurizio M.P.I.f.K., Heidelberg, F.R.G.
Chopra, Namrata Delhi University, India
Cote, Jacqueline Amsterdam Univ., Netherlands
Dal Fiume, Daniele C.N.R., Bologna, Italy
Falle, Samuel Univ. of Leeds, UK
Gok, Fatma Middle East Techn. Univ., Ankara, Turkey
GUrbUz, GUlsen M.S.U., Istanbul, Turkey
Kallrath, Josef l.f.A., Bonn, F.R.G.
Kulkarni, Shri Caltech, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
Kundt, Wolfgang l.f.A., Bonn, F.R.G.
Kunte, Prabhakar 1.I.F.R., Bombay, India
Lewin, Walter M.I.T., Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A.
Lundquist, Peter Lund Observatory, Sweden
Pols, Onno Amsterdam Univ., Netherlands
Salinas, Ener Stockholm Univ., Sweden
Sang, Yeming Louisiana State Univ., Baton Rouge, U.S.A.
Schaaf, Reinhold l.f.A., Bonn, F.R.G.
Sorrell, Wilfred Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, U.S.A.
Srinivasan, Gianesan R.R.I., Bangalore, India
Strom, Richard Radio Obs., Dwingeloo, Netherlands
Van Paradijs, Jan Amsterdam Univ., Netherlands
Verbunt, Frank Utrecht Univ., Netherlands
Zapata, Arauco, Juan San Andres Univ., La Paz, Bolivia
xi
