The Galactic population of canonical pulsars

Abstract

Context. Current wisdom suggests that the observed population of neutron stars are manifestations of their birth scenarios and their thermal and magnetic field evolution. Neutron stars can be observed at various wavebands as pulsars, and radio pulsars represent by far the largest population of neutron stars. Aims. In this paper, we aim to constrain the observed population of the canonical neutron star period, its magnetic field, and its spatial distribution at birth in order to understand the radio and high-energy emission processes in a pulsar magnetosphere. For this purpose we design a population synthesis method, self-consistently taking into account the secular evolution of a force-free magnetosphere and the magnetic field decay. Methods. We generated a population of pulsars and evolved them from their birth to the present time, using the force-free approximation. We assumed a given initial distribution for the spin period, surface magnetic field, and spatial Galactic location. Radio emission properties were accounted for by the polar cap geometry, whereas the gamma-ray emission was assumed to be produced within the striped wind model. Results. We find that a decaying magnetic field gives better agreement with observations compared to a constant magnetic field model. Starting from an initial mean magnetic field strength of B = 2.5 × 108 T with a characteristic decay timescale of 4.6 × 105 yr, a neutron star birth rate of 1/70 yr and a mean initial spin period of 60 ms, we find that the force-free model satisfactorily reproduces the distribution of pulsars in the P−Ṗ diagram with simulated populations of radio-loud, radio-only, and radio quiet gamma-ray pulsars similar to the observed populations.