Quantum electrodynamical corrections to a magnetic dipole in general relativity. Issue 4 (19th January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pétri, J.
• Is Part Of: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. Volume 456:Issue 4(2016)
• Page Start: 4455
• Page End: 4460
• Publication Date: 2016-01-19
• Subjects: gravitation -- magnetic fields -- plasmas -- methods: analytical -- stars: neutron; Astronomy -- Periodicals; Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stv2967
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0035-8711

Abstract

Abstract: Magnetized neutron stars are privileged places where strong electromagnetic fields as high as B Q = 4.4 × 10 9 T exist, giving rise to non-linear corrections to Maxwell equations described by quantum electrodynamics (QED). These corrections need to be included to the general relativistic (GR) description of a magnetic dipole supposed to be anchored in the neutron star. In this paper, these QED and GR perturbations to the standard flat space–time dipole are calculated to the lowest order in the fine structure constant αsf and to any order in the ratio R s / R where R is the neutron star radius and R s its Schwarzschild radius. Following our new 3+1 formalism developed in a previous work, we compute the multipolar non-linear corrections to this dipole and demonstrate the presence of a small dipolar ℓ = 1 and hexapolar ℓ = 3 component.