Vortex pinning and dynamics in the neutron star crust
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
2016-12-02 v2 Solar and Stellar Astrophysics
Superconductivity
Nuclear Theory
Abstract
The nature of the interaction between superfluid vortices and the neutron star crust, conjectured by Anderson and Itoh in 1975 to be at the heart vortex creep and the cause of glitches, has been a long-standing question in astrophysics. Using a qualitatively new approach, we follow the dynamics as superfluid vortices move in response to the presence of "nuclei" (nuclear defects in the crust). The resulting motion is perpendicular to the force, similar to the motion of a spinning top when pushed. We show that nuclei repel vortices in the neutron star crust, and characterize the force as a function of the vortex-nucleus separation.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1606.04847,
title = {Vortex pinning and dynamics in the neutron star crust},
author = {Gabriel Wlazłowski and Kazuyuki Sekizawa and Piotr Magierski and Aurel Bulgac and Michael McNeil Forbes},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1606.04847},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
supplemental materials included