A few people asked me about this:
> > (Ions of the same
> > charge attract each other in a neutron star magnetosphere. Strange but
> > true).
This statement is both true and false.
http://spacsun.rice.edu/~ian/preprints/2001/mnras_322_209.html
Basically, a spinning dipole sets up an interesting distribution in the
plasma around it. All the positive charge clumps in one place, all the
negative charge clumps in another. Individual positive and negative charges
still repel each other at close range, but the overall effect of the
distribution is to draw new negative charges into the negative mass and
positive charges into the positive mass.
[This has been done in the labs ad nauseum with charged spheres back in the
day before everyone lost interest in charge-separated plasmas -- but I
couldn't dig up any of the neat 1920s and earlier grainy photographs of
glowing plasmas in glass vacuum chambers.].
This is all part of the argument for neutron stars with aligned
spin/magnetic field axes being unable to be pulsars.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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