Neutron stars grow magnetic whiskers

It is generally agreed that neutron stars or pulsars have enormous magnetic fields at their surface—in the range $1012–1013$ gauss. Mal Ruderman of Columbia University has considered (Phys. Rev. Lett. 27, 1306, 1971) what happens to ordinary matter in such fields. He concludes that the surface of the neutron star is not a gas but condensed matter arranged in whiskers of atoms. “Neutron stars have hair,” he explains.