Student: Holden Kersey
Advisor: Dr. Asif ud-Doula
High-Mass X-Ray Binary pulsars (HMXB pulsars) are fast-moving, magnetized neutron stars in a binary orbit alongside a companion star, wherein X-Rays are emitted from their magnetic poles. These X-rays are generated when the neutron star accretes material from its companion and magnetic field deflects it to its poles. Magnetars are also neutron stars, but they are highly magnetized and slower-moving. What sets magnetars apart from normal neutron stars is the strength of their magnetic field which can be of the order of 10^9T-10^15G making them the most powerful known magnets in the universe. The aim of this project is to show how HMXB pulsars and magnetars differ from each other. We examined two catalogues containing HMXB pulsars (Kim et al. 2023) and magnetars (Olausen & Kaspi, 2014) and extracted data which empirically tell us about their characteristics such as the period, rate of change of period, magnetic field, and luminosity. Our results show the differences between the accretion-powered HMXB pulsars and electromagnetic-powered magnetars.