| Abstract : |
There exist many observational classes of neutron stars, which are likely to be connected through evolutionary pathways. Magnetars, with surface magnetic fields in excess of $\sim10^{14}$~G, are young (age $\lesssim 10^{4}$~years), isolated neutron stars that are observed as soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGR) and/or anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXP). The main energy source of these objects is understood to be the decay of their super-strong magnetic fields. In contrast, the emission of the radio pulsars (the most common form in which neutron stars are observed) come at the expense of their rotational energy.
However, in recent times observational evidence has been accumulating that points towards a definitive connection between the Magnetars, and radio pulsars possessing very high magnetic fields. For example, XTE J1810-197 has been the first magnetar observed to emit radio pulses. At present, quite a few such objects are known those display characteristics of both Magnetars as well as radio pulsars. There also exists a clear region of overlap between the Magnetars and radio pulsars in the spin-period -- magnetic field space.
We investigate the possible connection between the Magnetars and the population of high magnetic field radio pulsars. We compare the two populations using various statistical techniques and comment upon the possibility of an evolutionary connection between them. We also report on the development of a database management (python) package that can collate the data from multiple public databases (maintained by different research groups) to obtain the complete observational parameter-set (as much as is known at the present time) for a given neutron star. This package has been created in the course of this investigation for the purpose of easy collation of data.
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