Hydrodynamic simulations of pulsar glitch recovery

Abstract

Glitches are sudden jumps in the spin frequency of pulsars believed to originate in the superfluid interior of neutron stars. Superfluid flow in a model neutron star is simulated by solving the equations of motion of a two-component superfluid consisting of a viscous proton-electron plasma and an inviscid neutron condensate in a spherical Couette geometry. We examine the response of our model neutron star to glitches induced in three different ways: by instantaneous changes of the spin frequency of the inner and outer boundaries, and by instantaneous recoupling of the fluid components in the bulk. All simulations are performed with strong and weak mutual friction. It is found that the maximum size of a glitch that originates in the bulk decreases as the mutual friction strengthens. It is also found that mutual friction determines the fraction of the frequency jump which is later recovered, a quantity known as the 'healing parameter'. These behaviours may explain some of the diversity in observed glitch recoveries.

Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 15 pages, 9 figures

References in corpus (16)

• The ATNF Pulsar Catalogue
• TEMPO2, a new pulsar timing package. I: Overview
• Rapid Cooling of the Neutron Star in Cassiopeia A Triggered by Neutron Superfluidity in Dense Matter
• Models of Pulsar Glitches
• Neutron conduction in the inner crust of a neutron star in the framework of the band theory of solids
• Detection of 107 glitches in 36 southern pulsars
• Crustal Entrainment and Pulsar Glitches
• Avalanche dynamics of radio pulsar glitches
• Pulsars as Astrophysical Laboratories for Nuclear and Particle Physics
• Predicting the Starquakes in PSR J0537-6910
• Transitions between turbulent and laminar superfluid vorticity states in the outer core of a neutron star
• The rigidity of crystalline color superconducting quark matter
• A hydrodynamical trigger mechanism for pulsar glitches
• Unpinning triggers for superfluid vortex avalanches
• Two decades of pulsar timing of Vela
• Superfluid turbulence and pulsar glitch statistics

Cited by in corpus (15)

• Superfluidity and Superconductivity in Neutron Stars
• Neutron Stars in the Laboratory
• Constraints on pulsar masses from the maximum observed glitch
• Stability of interlinked neutron vortex and proton flux tube arrays in a neutron star: equilibrium configurations
• Postglitch exponential relaxation of radio pulsars and magnetars in terms of vortex creep across flux tubes
• Insights into the physics of neutron star interiors from pulsar glitches
• Parameter estimation of a two-component neutron star model with spin wandering
• Simulating pulsar glitches: an $N$-body solver for superfluid vortex motion in two dimensions
• Revisiting neutron starquakes caused by spin-down
• Revisiting the post-glitch relaxation of the 2000 Vela glitch with the neutron star equation of states in the Brueckner and relativistic Brueckner theories
• Differential rotation in neutron stars with open and closed magnetic topologies
• Pulsar rotation with superfluid entrainment
• Superfluid Spin-up: 3D Simulations of Post-Glitch Dynamics in Neutron Star Cores
• Roton instabilities in the superfluid outer core of neutron stars
• Discovery of the anti-glitch in PSR J1835$-$1106