The observed long-term spin-down evolution of isolated radio pulsars cannot be explained by the standard magnetic dipole radiation with a constant braking torque. However how and why the torque varies still remains controversial, which is an outstanding problem in our understanding of neutron stars. We have constructed a phenomenological model of the evolution of surface magnetic fields of pulsars, which contains a long-term decay modulated by short-term oscillations; a pulsar's spin is thus modified by its magnetic field evolution. The predictions of this model agree with the precisely measured spin evolutions of several individual pulsars; the derived parameters suggest that the Hall drift and Hall waves in the NS crusts are probably responsible for the long-term change and short-term quasi-periodical oscillations, respectively. Many statistical properties of the timing noise of pulsars can be well re-produced with this model, including correlations and the distributions of the observed braking indices of the pulsars, which span over a range of more than 100 millions. We have also presented a phenomenological model for the recovery processes of classical and slow glitches, which can successfully model the observed slow and classical glitch events without biases.
Do all millisecond pulsars share a common heritage?
低质量X射线双星系统中中子星毫秒脉动的发现证实了毫秒射电双星与低质量X射线双星系统之间的联系。从那时起,从LMXB产生毫秒射电双星,然后由于偶极辐射而自旋下降的过程被认为是毫秒射电双星的“标准进化”。然而,是否所有观测到的毫秒射电暴都可以由LMXB产生的问题直到现在还没有得到定量的解决。标准的演化过程产生的毫秒周期(P)和自旋下降速率(Pdot)并不完全独立。毫秒级射电望远镜可能达到的P-Pdot值受到联合约束。为了检验观测到的毫秒射电天体是否是毫秒X射线天体(MSXP)的明确后代,我们制作了一张概率图,它代表了标准模型下毫秒射电天体的预期分布。我们以超过95%的置信度表明,在标准模型的框架内,所观测到的毫秒X射线天体不能产生具有高磁场的最快旋转毫秒射电天体,例如PSR B 1937 +21。