In this graphic of a pulsar the emission beams are at the north and south poles of the neutron star's magnetic field.
I've read that the Earth's magnetic field is produced by a dynamo effect, whereby convection currents in the electrically conducting magma of the Earth's outer core create electric currents that produce a magnetic field.
But if most of the matter in neutron stars consists of superfluid electrically neutral neutrons, it seems to me that the dynamo theory would not work there, especially given that neutron stars which are pulsars have very strong magnetic fields.
When the core of a star's supernova explosion becomes a neutron star, it contains the original star's angular momentum in a much smaller object, so it spins very fast. The neutron star also contains the original star's magnetic field, so I assume its magnetic field likewise must be very strong. Would the magnetic field of the collapsing core of the original star cause the neutrons to align their magnetic moments? And is this the cause of a pulsar's strong magnetic field?
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