Related papers: Dissecting magnetar variability with Bayesian hier…
Glitches -- sudden increases in spin rate -- are observed in many pulsars. One mechanism advanced to explain glitches in the youngest pulsars is that they are caused by a starquake, a sudden rearrangement of the crust of the neutron star.…
We use numerical MHD to look at the stability of a possible poloidal field in neutron stars (Flowers & Ruderman 1977), and follow its unstable evolution, which leads to the complete decay of the field. We then model a neutron star after the…
The configuration of the magnetic field in the interior of a neutron star is mostly unknown from observations. Theoretical models of the interior magnetic field geometry tend to be oversimplified to avoid mathematical complexity and tend to…
Spinning superfluid neutrons in the core of a neutron star interact strongly with co-existing superconducting protons. One consequence is that the outward(inward) motion of core superfluid neutron vortices during spin-down(up) of a neutron…
The internal-plateau X-ray emission of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) indicates that a newly born magnetar could be the central object of some GRBs. The observed luminosity and duration of the plateaus suggest that, for such a magnetar, a rapid…
We consider the dynamics of a mechanical failure induced by a shear stress in a strongly magnetized neutron-star crust. We show that even if the elastic properties of the crust allow the creation of a shear crack, the strongly sheared…
The excitation of the axial quasi-normal modes of a relativistic star by scattered particles is studied by evolving the time dependent perturbation equations. This work is the first step towards the understanding of more complicated…
Long duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs) originate from the core collapse of massive stars, but the identity of the central engine remains elusive. Previous work has shown that rapidly spinning, strongly magnetized proto-neutron stars…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their amazing macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
Nascent neutron stars with millisecond periods and magnetic fields in excess of $10^{16}$ Gauss can drive highly energetic and asymmetric explosions known as magnetar-powered supernovae. These exotic explosions are one theoretical…
Recent observations indicate that magnetars may commonly reside in merging compact binaries and at least part of fast radio bursts (FRBs) are sourced by magnetar activities. It is natural to speculate that a class of merging neutron star…
We consider a newly-born millisecond magnetar, focusing on its interaction with the dense stellar plasma in which it is initially embedded. We argue that the confining pressure and inertia of the surrounding plasma acts to collimate the…
Observations of pulsar glitches have the potential to provide constraints on the dynamics of the high density interior of neutron stars. However, to do so, realistic glitch models must be constructed and compared to the data. We take a step…
We examine the equilibrium of a magnetized neutron-star-crust. We calculate axially symmetric models in which an elastic force balances solenoidal motion driven by a Lorentz force. A large variety of equilibrium models are allowed by…
The activity of magnetars is believed to be powered by colossal magnetic energy reservoirs. We sketch an evolutionary picture in which internal field evolution in magnetars generates a twisted corona, form which energy may be released…
Pulsar glitches are sudden increases in the spin frequency of an otherwise steadily spinning down neutron star. These events are thought to represent a direct probe of the dynamics of the superfluid interior of the star. However glitches…
I argue that the problem of electromagnetically driven electron-positron cascades in magnetospheres of neutron stars must be addressed starting from first principles. I describe a general numerical algorithm for doing self-consistent…
In a series of two papers, we investigate the mechanisms by which complex oscillations are generated in a class of nonlinear dynamical systems with resets modeling the voltage and adaptation of neurons. This first paper presents…
In this lecture, we give a first introduction to neutron stars, based on fundamental physical principles. After outlining their outstanding macroscopic properties, as obtained from observations, we infer the extreme conditions of matter in…
The origin and evolution of magnetic fields of neutron stars from birth has long been a source of debate. Here, motivated by recent simulations of the Hall cascade with magnetic helicity, we invoke a model where the large-scale magnetic…