Related papers: Neutron starquakes and the dynamic crust
The high frequency oscillations discovered in the tails of giant flares from two magnetars are thought to be the first direct detections of seismic vibrations from neutron stars. The possibility of starquakes associated with the giant…
Compact relativistic stars allow us to study the nature of matter under extreme conditions, probing regions of parameter space that are otherwise inaccessible. Nuclear theory in this regime is not well constrained: one key issue is whether…
Crustquake events may be connected with both rapid spin-up `glitches' within the regular slowdown of neutron stars, and high-energy magnetar flares. We argue that magnetic field decay builds up stresses in a neutron star's crust, as the…
Neutron stars enable us to study both the highest densities and the highest magnetic fields in the known Universe. In this article I review what can be learned about such fundamental physics using magnetar bursts. Both the instability…
Magnetars are young and highly magnetized neutron stars which display a wide array of X-ray activity including short bursts, large outbursts, giant flares and quasi-periodic oscillations, often coupled with interesting timing behavior…
The recent discovery of high frequency oscillations during giant flares from the Soft Gamma Repeaters SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 may be the first direct detection of vibrations in a neutron star crust. If this interpretation is correct it…
The quasiperiodic oscillations found in the three giant flares of soft gamma-ray repeaters observed to date have been interpreted as crustal oscillations caused by a starquake following a dramatic rearrangement of the stellar magnetic…
The giant flares produced by highly magnetized neutron stars, "magnetars," are the brightest sources of high energy radiation outside our solar system. Serendipitous observations with NASA's Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer (RXTE) of the two…
Among the many different classes of stellar objects, neutron stars provide a unique environment where we can test (at the same time) our understanding of matter with extreme density, temperature, and magnetic field. In particular, the…
Gravitational, magnetic and superfluid forces can stress the crust of an evolving neutron star. Fracture of the crust under these stresses could affect the star's spin evolution and generate high-energy emission. We study the growth of…
In the presence of strong magnetic field reported to have been observed on the surface of some neutron stars and on what are called Magnetars, a host of physical phenomenon from the birth of a neutron star to free streaming neutrino cooling…
The phenomenology of the emission of pulsars and magnetars depends dramatically on the structure and properties of their magnetic field. In particular it is believed that the outbursting and flaring activity observed in AXPs and SRGs is…
We advance a "Solar flare" model of magnetar activity, whereas a slow evolution of the magnetic field in the upper crust, driven by electron MHD (EMHD) flows, twists the external magnetic flux tubes, producing persistent emission, bursts…
There has recently been growing evidence for the existence of neutron stars possessing magnetic fields with strengths that exceed the quantum critical field strength of $4.4 \times 10^{13}$ G, at which the cyclotron energy equals the…
Young neutron stars born with magnetic fields $B\gtrsim 10^{16}$ G become hyperactive as the field inside the star evolves through ambipolar diffusion on a timescale $\sim 10^9$ s. We simulate this process numerically and find that it can…
The crust region is a tiny fraction of neutron stars, but it has a variety of physical properties and plays an important role in astronomical observations. One of the properties characterizing the crust is the elasticity. In this review,…
Magnetars are the strongest magnets in the present universe and the combination of extreme magnetic field, gravity and density makes them unique laboratories to probe current physical theories (from quantum electrodynamics to general…
Isolated neutron stars show a diversity in timing and spectral properties, which has historically led to a classification in different sub-classes. The magnetic field plays a key role in many aspects of the neutron star phenomenology: it…
We present the first simulations of evolving, strongly twisted magnetar magnetospheres. Slow shearing of the magnetar crust is seen to lead to a series of magnetospheric expansion and reconnection events, corresponding to X-ray flares and…
Magnetars are neutron stars with superstrong magnetic fields which can exceed 1e15 G. Some magnetars (the so-called soft gamma-repeaters) demonstrate occasionally very powerful processes of energy release, which result in exceptionally…