Date on Honors Thesis

Spring 5-2025

Major

Physics

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Joshua Ridley, Advisor

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Matthew Williams, Committee Member

Examining Committee Member

Dr. Justin Taylor, Committee Member

Abstract/Description

The beginnings of magnetar lifetimes are not very well understood. It is important to improve our understanding of magnetar origins in order to investigate possible evolutionary connections to other classes of NS, such as X-ray dim isolated NSs (XDINSs). Here we follow in the steps of another paper1 in modeling the spin evolution of magnetars, utilizing two avenues of evolution: one involving exponential B-field decay, and the other involving suband super-exponential B-field decay. We replicate the results of the paper, utilizing Monte Carlo methods to generate and evolve synthetic populations of magnetars, which are then compared to the current known magnetar population. We replicate the heat maps generated in their search for optimal model parameters; we also generate for other models heat maps that were not included in the original paper. We then investigate modifications to the B-field decay model in the case of sub-exponential decay, particularly investigating the introduction of a non-decaying core B-field.

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