The bottom magnetic field and magnetosphere evolution of neutron star in low mass X-ray binary

Abstract

The accretion induced neutron star magnetic field evolution is studied through considering the accretion flow to drag the field lines aside and dilute the polar field strength, and as a result the equatorial field strength increases and is buried inside the crust. The main conclusions of model are as follows: (i) the polar field decays with increasing the accreted mass; (ii) The bottom magnetic field strength of about $10^8$ G can occur when neutron star magnetosphere radius approaches the star radius, which depends on the accretion rate as $\mdot^{1/2}$; (iii) The neutron star magnetosphere radius decreases with accretion until it reaches the star radius, and its evolution is little influenced by the initial field and the accretion rate after accreting $\sim 0.01 \ms$, which implies that the magnetosphere radii of neutron stars in LMXBs would be homogeneous for Z sources and Atoll sources if they accreted the comparable masses. As an extension, the physics effects of the possible strong magnetic zone in the X-ray neutron stars and recycled pulsars are discussed. Moreover, The strong magnetic fields in the binary pulsars PSR 1831-00 and PSR 1718-19 after accreting about half solar mass in the binary accretion phase, $8.7\times10^{10}$ G and $1.28\times10^{12}$ G, respectively, can be explained through considering the incomplete frozen flow in the polar zone. As a model's expectation, the existence of the low magnetic field ($\sim 3\times 10^{7}$ G) neutron stars or millisecond pulsars is suggested.

8 pages, 4 figs, accepted by MNRAS, 2005