Chris Thompson
COURSE SUMMARY: Our picture of young neutron stars, usually
formed in supernova core collapse, has been dramatically
revised in the last several years. It now appears that, in
many cases, the dominant source of power for radiative
emissions is not the spin of the star (radio pulsars), but
the decay of an ultrastrong (10^{15} Gauss) magnetic field
(magnetars). These lectures will begin with an up-to-date
overview of our observational knowledge of young neutron stars,
and then go on to discuss their physical properties: their
electrodynamics, cooling mechanisms, the decay of their magnetic
fields, and their enormously bright X-ray outbursts.
**See the article in February 2003 Scientific American.**