Statistics of magnetic fields and fluxes of massive OB stars and the origin of neutron star magnetic fields

Based on the newest measurements, statistical properties of rms mean magnetic fields of OB and neutron stars (NSs) were investigated. The magnetic field distribution function f(B) for OB stars was determined and a sharp decrease of f(B) for weak magnetic fields was found. The mean magnetic fluxes F for all massive stars and NSs with measured magnetic fields was estimated, and it was found that log F = 27.7 for OB stars and log F = 24.5 for NSs. To explain the large differences of the fluxes from normal and neutron stars we studied the birth and evolution of isolated neutron stars in the whole volume of our Galaxy with our new code of population synthesis. We started modeling the birth of massive OB stars and followed their motion within the spiral arms to the point of supernova explosion. Next we considered the evolution of NS up to the death line with considering the magnetic field decay. We found that a significant magnetic field decay occurs during the first million years of a NS's life. We have estimated the mean time of the Ohmic decay for NS. We modeled the distributions of pulsar periods P, of period derivatives. P, and of pulsar magnetic fields B, and found that they are in a good agreement with those taken from ATNF Pulsar Catalogue (Manchester et al. 2005). (C) 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim