Anisotropic neutron star crust, solar system mountains, and gravitational waves

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Hauptverfasser: Morales, J. A., Horowitz, C. J.
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2023
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author Morales, J. A.
Horowitz, C. J.
author_facet Morales, J. A.
Horowitz, C. J.
contents "Mountains" or non-axisymmetric deformations of rotating neutron stars (NS) efficiently radiate gravitational waves (GW). We consider analogies between NS mountains and surface features of solar system bodies. Both NS and moons such as Europa or Enceladus have thin crusts over deep oceans while Mercury has a thin crust over a large metallic core. Thin sheets may wrinkle in universal ways. Europa has linear features, Enceladus has "Tiger" stripes, and Mercury has lobate scarps. NS may have analogous features. The innermost inner core of the Earth is anisotropic with a shear modulus that depends on direction. If NS crust material is also anisotropic this will produce an ellipticity, when the crust is stressed, that grows with spin frequency. This yields a braking index (log derivative of spin down rate assuming only GW spin down) very different from $n=5$ and could explain the maximum spin observed for neutron stars and a possible minimum ellipticity of millisecond pulsars.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_04855
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Anisotropic neutron star crust, solar system mountains, and gravitational waves
Morales, J. A.
Horowitz, C. J.
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Nuclear Theory
"Mountains" or non-axisymmetric deformations of rotating neutron stars (NS) efficiently radiate gravitational waves (GW). We consider analogies between NS mountains and surface features of solar system bodies. Both NS and moons such as Europa or Enceladus have thin crusts over deep oceans while Mercury has a thin crust over a large metallic core. Thin sheets may wrinkle in universal ways. Europa has linear features, Enceladus has "Tiger" stripes, and Mercury has lobate scarps. NS may have analogous features. The innermost inner core of the Earth is anisotropic with a shear modulus that depends on direction. If NS crust material is also anisotropic this will produce an ellipticity, when the crust is stressed, that grows with spin frequency. This yields a braking index (log derivative of spin down rate assuming only GW spin down) very different from $n=5$ and could explain the maximum spin observed for neutron stars and a possible minimum ellipticity of millisecond pulsars.
title Anisotropic neutron star crust, solar system mountains, and gravitational waves
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Nuclear Theory
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.04855