Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T17:34:32.333Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Magnetic Fields of Pulsars, Electrons and the Sun

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2016

K. D. Cole*
Affiliation:
Physics Department, La Trobe University, Bundoora, Vic 3083

Abstract

An apparent connection is reported between the magnetic field strengths inside an electron, in newly born pulsars, and the sun. It is argued that the upper limit to the strength of magnetic field which seems to exist is that which would permit emission of a photon at the non-relativistic electron gyrofrequency, with energy of the order of the electron rest mass. The strongest magnetic fields at the surface of polar regions of pulsars conform to this. By equating approximately the rest mass of an electron to its magnetic energy, the same magnetic field is found inside the electron. It is proposed that magnetic field building ‘blocks’ called M-particles are formed by a variant of the electron-positron spin-zero annihilation. The particles become as tightly stacked as possible to form the macroscopic magnetic field of the newly born pulsar. The sun’s present magnetic moment is described by a pulsar-sized object at its centre, with the maximum packing of M-particles. The hypothesis may have a bearing on the formation of magnetic fields in celestial bodies, and on the secular variation of the magnetic fields of the sun and the Earth.

Type
High Energy Astrophysics
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 1992

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Born, M. and Schrodinger, E., 1935, Nature, 134, 342.Google Scholar
Lyne, A.G. and Graham-Smith, F., 1990, Pulsar Astronomy, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K.Google Scholar
Michel, F.C., 1990, Theory of neutron star magnetospheres, University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Zaumen, W.T., 1976, Astrophys. J., 210, 776.Google Scholar