Perturbative approach to the structure of rapidly rotating neutron stars

Abstract

We construct models of rotating stars using the perturbative approach introduced by J. Hartle in 1967, and a set of equations of state proposed to model hadronic interactions in the inner core of neutron stars. We integrate the equations of stellar structure to third order in the angular velocity and show, comparing our results to those obtained with fully non linear codes, to what extent third order corrections are needed to accurately reproduce the moment of inertia of a star which rotates at rates comparable to that of the fastest isolated pulsars.

17 pages, 5 figures, minor changes to match version accepted by Phys. Rev. D