Abstract
PACZYNSKI has shown in some unpublished work that all stars in the interval 3.5 M⊙≲M≲8 M⊙ form degenerate carbon–oxygen cores (M ∼ 1.4 M⊙) which converge to the same central conditions before undergoing carbon ignition. The luminosities of these stars also converge, indicating that their cores are all essentially identical. Gunn and Ostriker (unpublished) have shown that the minimum mass for pulsar parent stars is about 4 M⊙ with a maximum parent mass of about 10 M⊙. Their study also indicates that the parameter B = Bia3 sin αI−1/2 (Bi is the initial magnetic field, a is the neutron star radius, α is the angle of inclination between the rotation and dipole axes, and I is the moment of inertia) varies only slightly among the fourteen pulsars the period of which has been observed to change, and for which B can thus be determined.
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References
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WHEELER, J. Possible Pulsar Formation Mechanism. Nature 226, 1043 (1970). https://doi.org/10.1038/2261043a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/2261043a0
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