The early life of millisecond magnetars

Abstract

Some neutron stars may be born spinning fast and with strong magnetic fields - the so-called millisecond magnetars. It is important to understand how a star's magnetic axis moves with respect to the spin axis in the star's early life, as this effects both electromagnetic and gravitational wave emission. Previous studies have highlighted the importance of viscous dissipation within the star in this process. We advance this program by additionally considering the effect of the electromagnetic torque. We find an interesting interplay between the viscous dissipation, which makes the magnetic axis orthogonalise with respect to the spin, verses magnetic torques that tend to make the magnetic axis align with the spin axis. We present some results, and highlight areas where our model needs to be made more realistic.