An equation of state(EOS) of nuclear matter with explicit inclusion of a
spin-isospin dependent force is constructed from a finite range, momentum and
density dependent effective interaction. This EOS is found to be in good
agreement with those obtained from more sophisticated models for unpolarised
nuclear matter. Introducing spin degrees of freedom, it is found that at
density about 2.5 times the density of normal nuclear matter the neutron matter
undergoes a ferromagnetic transition. The maximum mass and the radius of the
neutron star agree favourably with the observations. Since finding quark matter
rather than spin polarised nuclear matter at the core of neutron stars is more
probable, the proposed EOS is also applied to the study of hybrid stars. It is
found using the bag model picture that one can in principle describe both the
mass and size as well as the surface magnetic field of hybrid stars
satisfactorily.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures available on reques