Evolution of a Short-Period Gamma-Ray Pulsar Family: Crab, Vela, COS B Source, Gamma-Ray Burst Source

The effects of spinning down are followed in a model for certain families of short-period solitary gamma-ray pulsars. The model pulsars evolve through phases in which they successively resemble the Crab pulsar, Vela, and 'unidentified' COS B source, a Geminga-like object, and a transient gamma-ray burst (GRB) source. The behavior of the star at each stage is discussed. The model ultimately results in a large Galactic population of aligned latent Vela-like pulsars with periods of 0.1-0.2 sec. If temporarily reignited by appropriate 'matches' such as small, infrequent pulsar cap X-ray bursts from weak accretion of interstellar matter, these latent, rapidly spinning pulsars could radiate with the intensity and spectrum of most hard-spectrum GRB sources.