Whither Strange Pulsars ?

Abstract

Both neutron stars and strange stars are capable of supporting fast rotations observed in pulsars. On the basis of this it has been argued that some of the pulsars could be strange stars. We investigate whether strange stars can sustain characteristic pulsar magnetic fields ($10^8 - 10^{13.5} Gauss$) over astronomically significant time-scales. Furthermore, we check whether strange stars fit into the general scenario of field evolution of pulsars. It is found that as far as the evolution of the magnetic field is concerned the strange pulsar hypothesis runs into serious difficulties to explain the observational data.