Approximate analytic expressions for circular orbits around rapidly rotating compact stars

Abstract

We calculate stationary configurations of rapidly rotating compact stars in general relativity, to study the properties of circular orbits of test particles in the equatorial plane. We search for simple, but precise, analytical formulae for the orbital frequency, specific angular momentum and binding energy of a test particle, valid for any equation of state and for any rotation frequency of the rigidly rotating compact star, up to the mass-shedding limit. Numerical calculations are performed using precise 2-D codes based on multi-domain spectral methods. Models of rigidly rotating neutron stars and the space-time outside them are calculated for several equations of state of dense matter. Calculations are also performed for quark stars consisting of self-bound quark matter. At the mass-shedding limit, the rotational frequency converges to a Schwarzschildian orbital frequency at the equator. We show that orbital frequency for any orbit outside equator is also approximated by a Schwarzschildian formula. Using a simple approximation for the frame-dragging term, we obtain approximate expressions for the specific angular momentum and specific energy on the corotating circular orbits in the equatorial plane of neutron star, which are valid down to the stellar equator. The formulae recover reference numerical values with typically 1% of accuracy for neutron stars with M > 0.5 M_sun. They are less precise for quark stars consisting of self-bound quark matter.

6 pages, 6 figures, A&A in press

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• Phenomenological constraints on accretion of non-annihilating dark matter on the PSR B1257+12 pulsar from orbital dynamics of its planets
• Compression of matter in the center of accreting neutron stars
• Implications of the measured parameters of PSR J1903+0327 for its progenitor neutron star
• Progenitor neutron stars of the lightest and heaviest millisecond pulsars
• Accelerated expansion of the universe and chasing photons from the CMB to study the late time integrated Sachs-Wolfe effect over different redshift ranges
• Test of the string loop oscillation model using kHz quasiperiodic oscillations in a neutron star binary