Evolution of Crab Pulsar: Magnetic Inclination Angle and Spin

Abstract The well-observed Crab pulsar helps one to uncover the underlying knowledge about pulsar evolution. The routine evolution model simultaneously describes the spin-down caused by magnetic dipole radiation and gravitational-wave radiation (GWR), the damping of the free-body precession owing to the bulk viscosity, and the GWR-induced quenching of the magnetic inclination angle χ . We explore the pulsar evolution based on this routine model supplemented with the effects of shear viscosity, r -mode, electromagnetic torque, and accretion, with the stellar thermal evolution as an important input. The impact of shear viscosity on radio pulsar evolution is negligible, as it only slightly increases the magnetic inclination angle and promotes spin-down in magnetars. Under the observational limit for its saturation amplitude, the r -mode also turns out to be completely negligible. Yet, the electromagnetic torque (under certain conditions), along with the accretion based on our three-dimensional fallback disk accretion model, is shown to suppress the growth of the magnetic inclination angle. When applied to the Crab pulsar, the routine model best reproduces the magnetic inclination angle χ , the spin period P , and the spin period derivative <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>P</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>̇</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> simultaneously, indicating the important role of bulk viscosity. The inclusion of the electromagnetic torque and accretion works even worse, suggesting these two factors perhaps are overestimated for the Crab pulsar. Intriguingly, the calculated magnetic inclination angle derivative <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>χ</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>̇</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> is (6 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">°</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 3 × 10 −3 –0 <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>°</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> </mml:math> 3) century –1 with the routine model, also in agreement with the observed tiny <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" overflow="scroll"> <mml:mover accent="true"> <mml:mi>χ</mml:mi> <mml:mo>̇</mml:mo> </mml:mover> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>0</mml:mn> <mml:mover> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>.</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow> <mml:mtext>°</mml:mtext> </mml:mrow> </mml:mover> <mml:mn>62</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="0.25em"/> <mml:msup> <mml:mi>century</mml:mi> <mml:mrow> <mml:mo>–</mml:mo> <mml:mn>1</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:msup> </mml:math> .