Magnetic fields in axisymmetric neutron stars

Abstract

We derive general equations for axisymmetric Newtonian magnetohydrodynamics and use these as the basis of a code for calculating equilibrium configurations of rotating magnetized neutron stars in a stationary state. We investigate the field configurations that result from our formalism, which include purely poloidal, purely toroidal and mixed fields. For the mixed-field formalism, the toroidal component appears to be bounded at less than 7 per cent. We calculate distortions induced both by magnetic fields and by rotation. From our non-linear work, we are able to look at the realm of validity of perturbative work: we find for our results that perturbative-regime formulae for magnetic distortions agree to within 10 per cent of the non-linear results if the ellipticity is less than 0.15 or the average field strength is less than 1017 G. We also consider how magnetized equilibrium structures vary for different polytropic indices. © 2009 RAS.