scholarly journals Towards an Empirical Unified Crust–Core Description of Neutron Stars

Author(s):  
Debarati Chatterjee ◽  
Francesca Gulminelli

AbstractUnderstanding the properties of the crust and the core as well as its interface is essential for accurate astrophysical modelling of phenomena such as glitches, X-ray bursts or oscillations in neutron stars. To study the crust–core properties, it is crucial to develop a unified and consistent scheme to describe both the clusterised matter in the crust and homogeneous matter in the core. The low density regime in the neutron star crust is accessible to terrestrial nuclear experiments. In order to develop a consistent description of the crust and the core of neutron stars within the same formalism, we use a density functional scheme, with the model coefficients in homogeneous matter related directly to empirical nuclear observables. In this work, we extend this scheme to non-homogeneous matter to describe nuclei in the crust. We then test this scheme against nuclear observables.

2004 ◽  
Vol 218 ◽  
pp. 265-266
Author(s):  
Ya. N. Istomin

The electromagnetic fields of magnetodipole radiation can penetrate to the conducting matter of a neutron star crust and create there electric currents and tangential magnetic fields of high magnitude. The solution obtained here has the form of surface magnetic field discontinuities propagating through the crust to the core. This model explains the phenomena of magnetars — Soft Gamma-ray Repeaters and Anomalous X-ray Pulsars.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S337) ◽  
pp. 225-228
Author(s):  
Morgane Fortin

AbstractSimultaneous measurements of the radius and mass of neutron stars (NSs) are expected from the new generation of X-ray telescopes, potentially constraining the NS equation of state (EoS). However using ‘non-unified’ EoSs with the ones for the core and the crust not based on the same nuclear model can introduce an uncertainty on the radius as large as the precision expected from these instruments. I present two solutions to this problem: a large collection of unified EoSs and an approximate and yet precise approach that, with no need of a crust EoS, provides the relation between the NS mass and radius. I discuss correlations between the NS radius and nuclear parameters, possibly allowing to constrain the NS radius with experiments on Earth. Finally, I show that in spite of the observation of massive NSs, one can not exclude that hyperons appear at high densities in NSs due to the scarcity of the available experimental data.


2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (S337) ◽  
pp. 229-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcella J.P. Wijngaarden ◽  
Rudy Wijnands ◽  
Laura S. Ootes ◽  
Aastha S. Parikh ◽  
Dany Page

AbstractIn accreting neutron star X-ray transients, the neutron star crust can be substantially heated out of thermal equilibrium with the core during an accretion outburst. The observed subsequent cooling in quiescence (when accretion has halted) offers a unique opportunity to study the structure and thermal properties of the crust. Initially crust cooling modelling studies focussed on transient X-ray binaries with prolonged accretion outbursts (> 1 year) such that the crust would be significantly heated for the cooling to be detectable. Here we present the results of applying a theoretical model to the observed cooling curve after a short accretion outburst of only ~10 weeks. In our study we use the 2010 outburst of the transiently accreting 11 Hz X-ray pulsar in the globular cluster Terzan 5. Observationally it was found that the crust in this source was still hot more than 4 years after the end of its short accretion outburst. From our modelling we found that such a long-lived hot crust implies some unusual crustal properties such as a very low thermal conductivity (> 10 times lower than determined for the other crust cooling sources). In addition, we present our preliminary results of the modelling of the ongoing cooling of the neutron star in MXB 1659-298. This transient X-ray source went back into quiescence in March 2017 after an accretion phase of ~1.8 years. We compare our predictions for the cooling curve after this outburst with the cooling curve of the same source obtained after its previous outburst which ended in 2001.


2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (4) ◽  
pp. 5570-5582
Author(s):  
F Gittins ◽  
N Andersson ◽  
D I Jones

ABSTRACT As the era of gravitational-wave astronomy has well and truly begun, gravitational radiation from rotating neutron stars remains elusive. Rapidly spinning neutron stars are the main targets for continuous-wave searches since, according to general relativity, provided they are asymmetrically deformed, they will emit gravitational waves. It is believed that detecting such radiation will unlock the answer to why no pulsars have been observed to spin close to the break-up frequency. We review existing studies on the maximum mountain that a neutron star crust can support, critique the key assumptions and identify issues relating to boundary conditions that need to be resolved. In light of this discussion, we present a new scheme for modelling neutron star mountains. The crucial ingredient for this scheme is a description of the fiducial force which takes the star away from sphericity. We consider three examples: a source potential which is a solution to Laplace’s equation, another solution which does not act in the core of the star and a thermal pressure perturbation. For all the cases, we find that the largest quadrupoles are between a factor of a few to two orders of magnitude below previous estimates of the maximum-mountain size.


2017 ◽  
Vol 26 (04) ◽  
pp. 1750015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yeunhwan Lim ◽  
Chang Ho Hyun ◽  
Chang-Hwan Lee

In this paper, we investigate the cooling of neutron stars with relativistic and nonrelativistic models of dense nuclear matter. We focus on the effects of uncertainties originated from the nuclear models, the composition of elements in the envelope region, and the formation of superfluidity in the core and the crust of neutron stars. Discovery of [Formula: see text] neutron stars PSR J1614−2230 and PSR J0343[Formula: see text]0432 has triggered the revival of stiff nuclear equation of state at high densities. In the meantime, observation of a neutron star in Cassiopeia A for more than 10 years has provided us with very accurate data for the thermal evolution of neutron stars. Both mass and temperature of neutron stars depend critically on the equation of state of nuclear matter, so we first search for nuclear models that satisfy the constraints from mass and temperature simultaneously within a reasonable range. With selected models, we explore the effects of element composition in the envelope region, and the existence of superfluidity in the core and the crust of neutron stars. Due to uncertainty in the composition of particles in the envelope region, we obtain a range of cooling curves that can cover substantial region of observation data.


2003 ◽  
Vol 12 (05) ◽  
pp. 825-831 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. O. TAGIEVA ◽  
E. YAZGAN ◽  
A. ANKAY

We examined the fall-back disk models, and in general accretion, proposed to explain the properties of AXPs and SGRs. We checked the possibility of some gas remaining around the neutron star after a supernova explosion. We also compared AXPs and SGRs with the X-ray pulsars in X-ray binaries. We conclude that the existing models of accretion from a fall-back disk are insufficient to explain the nature of AXPs and SGRs.


1971 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 394-406
Author(s):  
F. Pacini

The Crab Nebula pulsar conforms to the model of a rotating magnetised neutron star in the rate of energy generation and the exponent of the rotation law.It is suggested that the main pulse is due to electrons and the precursor to protons. Both must radiate in coherent bunches. Optical and X-ray radiation is by the synchrotron process.The wisps observed in the Nebula may represent the release of an instability storing about 1043 erg and 1047–48 particles.Finally, some considerations are made about the general relation between supernova remnants and rotating neutron stars.


1990 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 89-110
Author(s):  
H. V. Bradt ◽  
A. M. Levine ◽  
E. H. Morgan ◽  
R. A. Remillard ◽  
J. H. Swank ◽  
...  

AbstractThe capabilities of the X-ray Timing Explorer (XTE) are described with particular attention paid to current scientific problems it will address from galactic neutron star systems to active galactic nuclei. It features a low-background continuous 2-200 keV response with large apertures (a 0.63-m2 proportional counter array and a 0.16-m2 dual rocking NaI/CsI scintillation array). Rapid response (in hours) to temporal phenomena, e.g. transients, is obtained by virtue of a scanning all-sky monitor and rapid maneuverability. XTE will carry out detailed energy-resolved studies of phenomena close to neutron stars (e.g. QPO’s) because of its sub-millisecond timing (to 10 μs), its high telemetry rates (to 256 kb/s), and the high throughput of its data system (to ≳ 2 × 105 c s−1).


2000 ◽  
Vol 195 ◽  
pp. 49-60
Author(s):  
W. Becker

Recent X-ray observatories such as ROSAT, ASCA, RXTE, BeppoSAX, and Chandra have achieved important progress in neutron star and pulsar astronomy. The identification of Geminga as a rotation-powered pulsar, the discovery of X-ray emission from millisecond pulsars, and the identification of cooling neutron stars are only a few of the fascinating results. In the following, I will give a brief review on the X-ray emission properties of rotation-powered pulsars and their wind nebulae.


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