Related papers: Spin--Down Power in Astrophysics
The observed large rates of spinning down after glitches in some radio pulsars has been previously explained in terms of a long-term spin-up behaviour of a superfluid part of the crust of neutron stars. We argue that the suggested mechanism…
Fast spinning neutron stars, recycled in low mass binaries, may have accreted a substantial amount of mass. The available relativistic measurements of neutron star masses, all clustering around 1.4 M_sun, however refer mostly to slowly…
We present a model for the rotational evolution of a young, solar-mass star interacting magnetically with an accretion disk. As in a previous paper (Paper I), the model includes changes in the star's mass and radius as it descends the…
The discovery of the existence of an upper bound on the mass of a white dwarf star is considered as one of the finest of twentieth century astrophysics. On approaching this limiting mass of $1.4M_\odot$, known as the Chandrasekhar…
Some recent developments concerning the role of strange quark matter for astrophysical systems and the QCD phase transition in the early universe are addressed. Causality constraints of the soft nuclear equation of state as extracted from…
The limiting rotational frequency of neutron stars may be determined by the strength of their crusts. As a star spins up from accretion, centrifugal forces will cause the crust to fail. If the crust breaks unevenly, a rotating mass…
The neutron star crust is rigid material floating on a neutron-proton liquid core. As the star's spin rate slows, the changing stellar shape stresses the crust and causes fractures. These starquakes may trigger pulsar glitches as well as…
We consider the slowly rotating relativistic stars with a uniform angular velocity in the scalar-tensor gravity, and examine the rotational effect around such compact objects. For this purpose, we derive a 2nd order differential equation…
In this paper we propose a new plausible mechanism of supernova explosions specific to close binary systems. The starting point is the common envelope phase in the evolution of a binary consisting of a red super giant and a neutron star. As…
The understanding of stellar structure represents the crossroads of our theories of the nuclear force and the gravitational interaction under the most extreme conditions observably accessible. It provides a powerful probe of the strong…
The vast majority of stars that populate the Universe will end their evolution as white-dwarf stars. Applications of white dwarfs include cosmochronology, evolution of planetary systems, and also as laboratories to study non-standard…
Strange quark matter in beta equilibrium at high densities is studied in a quark confinement model. Two equations of state are dynamically generated for the {\it same} set of model parameters used to describe the nucleon: one corresponds to…
We study the spindown of isolated neutron stars from initially rapid rotation rates, driven by two factors: (i) gravitational wave emission due to r-modes and (ii) magnetic braking. In the context of isolated neutron stars, we present the…
According to the traditional scenario for core-collapse supernovae, the core of the collapsing star forms a neutron star and its gravitational energy release sends out a shockwave into the stellar envelope. However, in a significant number…
This paper investigates the spin-up of a mass-accreting star in a close binary system passing through the first stage of mass exchange in the Hertzsprung gap. Inside an accreting star, angular momentum is carried by meridional circulation…
Chandrasekhar made the startling discovery about nine decades back that the mass of compact object white dwarf has a limiting value, once nuclear fusion reactions stop therein. This is the Chandrasekhar mass-limit, which is $\sim1.4M_\odot$…
Neutron star configurations are considered as thermodynamical systems for which a phase diagram in the angular velocity (Omega) - baryon number (N) plane is obtained with a dividing line N_{crit}(Omega) for quark core configurations.…
The recent emergence of a new class of accretion-powered, transient, millisecond X-ray pulsars presents some difficulties for the conventional picture of accretion onto rapidly rotating magnetized neutron stars and their spin behavior…
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…
A rotating star's oblateness creates a deformation in the gravitational field outside the star, which is measured by the quadrupole-moment tensor. We consider the effect of the quadrupole moment on the orbital motion and rate of inspiral of…