Neutron Star Capture Theory

A new post has been added providing details about Neutron Star Capture Theory, which is the essential mechanism used to explain the full theory of pulsars. While the theory has existed since 1975, it has only been applied in a limited manner. In Secret of the Pulsars, this theory is used to explain all pulsars and is the basis for concluding that 5 trillion neutron stars must exist in the Milky Way in order to explain pulsars.

Note (1/3/18): We probably need a better name for the “Neutron Star Capture Theory”, because the theory proposed on this site is much more than simply the “process” of capturing a neutron star, which, as noted above, has been established since 1975. What is different about the new theory is that it applies far more broadly than the original published theory which was only intended to explain behavior in globular clusters.

The essence of the current theory is the number of neutron stars required to make the theory applicable to the whole galaxy, and not just the globular clusters. The same mechanism is used to execute the capture in both cases (tidal forces), however, in order for the new theory to use the capture mechanism, there must be many more neutron stars in existence than currently thought, because otherwise the encounters required to enable the captures will be too few to explain current population data of pulsars and supernova events.

Therefore, one manner of proving the theory is to disprove the current theory that a normal star can evolve into a neutron star. Since only giant stars (> 1.4 M-Sun) can become neutron stars, only a subset of supernova events can be explained by neutron star creation, which immediately poses a burden on current supernova theory by forcing it to have a separate mechanism to create a supernova in star with M < 1.4 M-Sun.

Rich Levinson
1/1/2018