Related papers: Quarks and Quakes
We examine the timing history of several anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs), and find that they exhibit spin down irregularities statistically similar to those of radio pulsars. We propose that these irregularities are simply glitches like…
We present three-dimensional force-free electrodynamics simulations of magnetar magnetospheres that demonstrate the instability of certain degenerate, high energy equilibrium solutions of the Grad-Shafranov equation. This result indicates…
With a growing sample of fast radio bursts (FRBs), we investigate the energy budget of different power sources within the framework of magnetar starquake triggering mechanism. During a starquake, the energy can be released in any form…
The interpretation of experimental and numerical data describing off-equilibrium aging dynamics crucially depends on the connection between spontaneous and induced fluctuations. The hypothesis that linear response fluctuations are…
Magnetic braking causes the spin-down of single stars as they evolve on the main sequence. Models of magnetic braking can also explain the evolution of close binary systems, including cataclysmic variables. The well-known period gap in the…
Crackling noise is observed in many disordered non-equilibrium systems in response to slowly changing external conditions. Examples range from Barkhausen noise in magnets to acoustic emission in martensites to earthquakes. Using the…
We provide a clear energetic insight into the catastrophic nature of the so-called creasing and pull-in instabilities in soft electro-active elastomers. These phenomena are ubiquitous for thin electro-elastic plates and are a major obstacle…
Electroweak models with low-energy supersymmetry breaking predict the existence of stable non-topological solitons, Q-balls, that can be produced in the early universe. The relic Q-balls can accumulate inside a neutron star and gradually…
We investigate the stability of strange quark matter and the properties of the corresponding strange stars, within a wide range of quark mass scaling. The calculation shows that the resulting maximum mass always lies between 1.5 solor mass…
According to the strange quark matter hypothesis, strange planets may exist, which are planetary mass objects composed of almost equal numbers of up, down and strange quarks. A strange planet can revolve around its host strange star in a…
We test statistically the hypothesis that radio pulsar glitches result from an avalanche process, in which angular momentum is transferred erratically from the flywheel-like superfluid in the star to the slowly decelerating, solid crust via…
We review the results in our recent works on the generation of strong magnetic fields in compact stars driven by the parity violating electroweak interactions between background fermions. The cases of a neutron star, a hybrid star, and a…
Pulsar glitches are attributed to the sudden re-coupling of very weakly coupled large scale superfluid components in the neutron star interior. This process leads to rapid exchange of angular momentum and an increase in spin frequency. The…
Magnetars are fascinating objects that are thought to be neutron stars powered by their strong internal magnetic fields. Clear evidence of a sudden spin-down was detected in the Anomalous X-ray Pulsar AXP 1E 2259+586, an object cataloged as…
The high-energy sources known as anomalous X-ray pulsars (AXPs) and soft gamma-ray repeaters (SGRs) are well explained as magnetars: isolated neutron stars powered by their own magnetic energy. After explaining why it is generally believed…
Pulsar "standard model" of rotating magnetized conducting sphere surrounded by plasma is generalized in its essential parts for the case of oscillating star. Goldreich-Julian charge density, electromagnetic energy losses as well as polar…
Pulsars spin-down due to magnetic torque reducing its radius and increasing the central energy density. Some pulsar which are born with central densities close to the critical value of quark deconfinement may undergo a phase transition and…
Quasi-Periodic Erupters (QPEs) are a remarkable class of objects exhibiting very large amplitude quasi-periodic X-ray flares. Although numerous dynamical models have been proposed to explain them, relatively little attention has been given…
In this short note I discuss the hypothesis that bursting activity of magnetars evolves in time analogously to the glitching activity of normal radio pulsars (i.e. sources are more active at smaller ages), and that the increase of the burst…
Earthquakes occur because of abrupt slips on faults due to accumulated stress in the Earth's crust. Because most of these faults and their mechanisms are not readily apparent, deterministic earthquake prediction is difficult. For effective…