New Universal Relations for Magnetized Neutron Stars

Abstract

Unlike the neutron-star mass--radius relation, which depends sensitively on the internal stellar structure through the equation of state of dense nuclear matter, certain neutron-star properties obey approximately universal relations that exhibit only weak dependence on the equation of state. In this paper, we explore new universal relations for magnetized neutron stars. We focus on a purely poloidal dipolar magnetic-field configuration and treat the effects of the magnetic field perturbatively to second order in the field strength. After appropriately normalizing the relevant quantities by the stellar mass and the magnetic-field strength at the pole, we first identify an exact universal relation between the magnetic dipole moment and stellar compactness. We then find approximate universal relations among the magnetic dipole moment, magnetically-induced stellar quadrupole moment, and ellipticity, with fractional variations due to the equation of state at the level of O(10%). We support these numerical findings with analytic estimates for Newtonian polytropes, which reproduce the observed behavior. Among the newly discovered relations, the one connecting the magnetic dipole moment and stellar quadrupole moment may be particularly useful for the analysis of gravitational-wave signals from binaries containing magnetized neutron stars.