Magnetic field growth in young glitching pulsars with a braking index

Abstract

In the standard scenario for spin evolution of isolated neutron stars, a young pulsar slows down with a surface magnetic field B that does not change. Thus the pulsar follows a constant B trajectory in the phase space of spin period and spin period time derivative. Such an evolution predicts a braking index n = 3 while the field is constant and n > 3 when the field decays. This contrasts with all nine observed values being n < 3. Here we consider a magnetic field that is buried soon after birth and diffuses to the surface. We use a model of a growing surface magnetic field to fit observations of the three pulsars with lowest n: PSR J0537-6910 with n = -1.5, PSR B0833-45 (Vela) with n = 1.4, and PSR J1734-3333 with n = 0.9. By matching the age of each pulsar, we determine their magnetic field and spin period at birth and confirm the magnetar-strength field of PSR J1734-3333. Our results indicate that all three pulsars formed in a similar way to central compact objects (CCOs), with differences due to the amount of accreted mass. We suggest that magnetic field emergence may play a role in the distinctive glitch behaviour of low braking index pulsars, and we propose glitch behaviour and characteristic age as possible criteria in searches for CCO descendants.