Nuclear superfluidity and cooling time of neutron stars

We discuss how the nuclear superfluidity affects the thermalisation time of the inner crust of neutron star in the case of a rapid cooling process. The thermal response of the inner crust matter is calculated supposing two pairing scenarios: one corresponding to the BCS approximation and the other to many-body techniques including polarisation effects. It is shown that these two pairing scenarios, which reflect the present uncertainty in the pairing properties of infinite neutron matter, give very different values for the thermalisation time of the crust.     

Constraints on the symmetry energy from observational probes of the neutron star crust

A number of observed phenomena associated with individual neutron star systems or neutron star populations find explanations in models in which the neutron star crust plays an important role. We review recent work examining the sensitivity to the slope of the symmetry energy L of such models, and constraints extracted on L from confronting them with observations. We focus on six sets of observations and proposed explanations: i) The cooling rate of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A, confronting cooling models which include enhanced cooling in the nuclear pasta regions of the inner crust; ii) the upper limit of the observed periods of young X-ray pulsars, confronting models of magnetic field decay in the crust caused by the high resistivity of the nuclear pasta layer; iii) glitches from the Vela pulsar, confronting the paradigm that they arise due to a sudden recoupling of the crustal neutron superfluid to the crustal lattice after a period during which they were decoupled due to vortex pinning; iv) the frequencies of quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray tail of light curves from giant flares from soft gamma-ray repeaters, confronting models of torsional crust oscillations; v) the upper limit on the frequency to which millisecond pulsars can be spun-up due to accretion from a binary companion, confronting models of the r-mode instability arising above a threshold frequency determined in part by the viscous dissipation timescale at the crust-core boundary; and vi) the observations of precursor electromagnetic flares a few seconds before short gamma-ray bursts, confronting a model of crust shattering caused by resonant excitation of a crustal oscillation mode by the tidal gravitational field of a companion neutron star just before merger.     

奇异星的冷却

从奇异夸克物质的热力学巨势出发计算了奇异星的组份，得到电子丰度随强相互作用耦合常数或奇异物质的密度增大而减小．利用弱电统一理论，推导了奇异物质的中微子能量损失率。通过研究有薄壳的均匀奇异星和中子垦的冷却过程，得到年轻奇异星的表面温度比同年代的中子星的表面温度低得多，这可以作为区别奇异星与中子星的观测途径。 关键词：     

原子核对称能对中子星壳层结构的影响

中子星内壳层中存在原子核、中子、电子等非均匀分布的物质。在Wigner-Seitz近似下,共存相方法和自洽Thomas-Fermi近似方法是描述这种非均匀物质的有效方法。中子在非均匀物质所占的比例远远大于其他组分,因此原子核的对称能对非均匀物质的性质会产生十分重要的影响,而原子核对称能的密度依赖关系在核物质饱和密度附近有较大的不确定性。采用相对论平均场理论描述核子间相互作用,研究原子核对称能对中子星内壳层的密度范围、pasta相结构、壳核相变密度等性质的影响,探寻其中可能存在的关联。计算结果表明,原子核对称能及其密度依赖性在决定中子星内壳层非均匀物质的性质中起着重要作用,这与之前相关研究中得到的结论基本相符。Within Wigner-Seitz approximation, both the coexisting phases method and the self-consistent Thomas-Fermi approximation can be used to describe the nonuniform matter consisting of nuclei, neutrons, and electrons, which may coexist in the inner crust of neutron star. Since the neutron fraction is very large, nuclear symmetry energy may have an important impact on the properties of nonuniform matter. However, the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy around saturation density is still rather uncertain. This paper focuses on the influence of nuclear symmetry energy on the density range of inner crust, pasta phase structure, and crust-core transition density of neutron star, where the relativistic mean field theory is adopted to describe the nucleon-nucleon interaction. It is turned out that the nuclear symmetry energy and its density dependence play an import role in determining the properties of nonuniform matter in the inner crust of neutron star, which is consistent with the former related studies.     

A neutron star collapse induced by a primordial black hole as the source of cosmological γ-ray bursts

A novel scenario is proposed for the origin of cosmological γ-ray bursts relating them with the induced collapse of an isolated neutron star under the action of a primordial black hole inside it. A mechanism is pointed out for black hole capturing into bounded orbits in a contracting protostellar cloud (which further evolves to a neutron star), and it is shown that this mechanism is most efficient in the pregalactic epoch. The qualitative results of neutrino transfer calculations are presented; these neutrinos originate from the quark phase transition in the nucleon matter which takes place in the accretion flow in the interior of the star. The neutrinos and antineutrinos escaping from a dense nucleon matter are degenerate and annihilate in the immediate vicinity of the star surface where an inverse temperature layer in the outstreaming electron-positron wind is produced. This layer acts as a natural barrier against baryon pollution and gives rise to a very high (≈ 10³) value of the Lorentz factor in the expanding plasma, in agreement with the observed energy and duration of the process. This makes it possible to explain the main properties of the γ-ray bursts. We also consider other important features of this scenario, including the predominantly extragalactic origin of the bursts, the apparent absence of the cosmological time dilation, the excess drop in the number of bursts—luminosity dependence for z>0.7, and the unlikely corrllation between the burst and the gravitational wave pulse.     

中子星中简并电子气体的临界磁化

中子星内部的电子处于高度简并或完全简并的状态,电子磁矩(包括内禀磁矩和朗道反磁矩)的取向不是随机的,而是呈现出极强的磁化行为.考虑了磁化后的磁诱导方程要改写,改写后的方程添加了新的磁场生成项,更重要的改变是等效磁扩散系数变小了(顺磁情况),在临界情况(等效扩散系数等于零),磁场在磁生成项的作用下增加直到抑制机理出现,朗道反磁矩就是在这个时候变得越来越重要.磁场增加的最终结果使中子星局域磁场成为振荡的,对外看来有可能成为磁星. 关键词： 中子星 简并 磁化     

Durabiity of Neutron Star Crust

How long do neutron star mountains last? The durability of elastically deformed crust is important for neutron star physics including pulsar glitches, emission of gravitational waves from static mountains, and flares from star quakes. The durability is defined by the strength properties of the Yukawa crystals of ions, which make up the crust. In this paper we extend our previous results [Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 407 , L54 (2010)] and accurately describe the dependence of the durability on crust composition (which can be reduced to the dependence on the screening length λ of the Yukawa potential). We perform several molecular dynamics simulations of crust breaking and describe their results with a phenomenological model based on the kinetic theory of strength. We provide an analytical expression for the durability of neutron star crust matter for different densities, temperatures, stresses, and compositions. This expression can also be applied to estimate durability of Yukawa crystals in other systems, such as dusty plasmas in the laboratory (© 2011 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Dense matter with eXTP

In this White Paper we present the potential of the Enhanced X-ray Timing and Polarimetry(eXTP) mission for determining the nature of dense matter; neutron star cores host an extreme density regime which cannot be replicated in a terrestrial laboratory. The tightest statistical constraints on the dense matter equation of state will come from pulse profile modelling of accretion-powered pulsars, burst oscillation sources, and rotation-powered pulsars. Additional constraints will derive from spin measurements, burst spectra, and properties of the accretion flows in the vicinity of the neutron star. Under development by an international Consortium led by the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the eXTP mission is expected to be launched in the mid 2020 s.     

Thermal conduction across neutron star crusts and cooling of young neutron stars

We calculate thermal conduction times in the crust and core of a neutron star and find that for certain neutron star models the surface remains thermally isolated from the core at initial times. The surface temperature of a few hundred year old neutron star in these models can be insensitive to the presence of a pion-condensed core and might well be within the limits of observability of the HEAO satellite which can help to distinguish between different neutron star models.     

Quark stars: features and findings

Under extreme conditions of temperature and/or density, quarks and gluons are expected to undergo a deconfinement phase transition. While this is an ephemeral phenomenon at the ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collider (BNL-RHIC), quark matter may exist naturally in the dense interior of neutron stars. Here, we present an appraisal of the possible phase structure of dense quark matter inside neutron stars, and the likelihood of its existence given the current status of neutron star observations. We conclude that quark matter inside neutron stars cannot be dismissed as a possibility, although recent observational evidence rules out most soft equations of state. PACS 97.60.Jd; 26.60.+c     

Impact of neutron star crust on gravitational waves from the axial w-modes

The imprints of the neutron star crust on the gravitational waves emitted from the axial w-modes are investigated by adopting two typical equations of state (EOSs) of the crust matter and two representative EOSs of the core matter. It is shown that there is a significant effect of the crust EOSs on the gravitational waves from the axial w-mode oscillation for a stiff core EOS.     

Hypernuclear physics for neutron stars

The role of hypernuclear physics for the physics of neutron stars is delineated. Hypernuclear potentials in dense matter control the hyperon composition of dense neutron star matter. The three-body interactions of nucleons and hyperons determine the stiffness of the neutron star equation of state and thereby the maximum neutron star mass. Two-body hyperon–nucleon and hyperon–hyperon interactions give rise to hyperon pairing which exponentially suppresses cooling of neutron stars via the direct hyperon URCA processes. Nonmesonic weak reactions with hyperons in dense neutron star matter govern the gravitational wave emissions due to the r-mode instability of rotating neutron stars.     

Thermal evolution and light curves of young bare strange stars

We study numerically the cooling of a young bare strange star and show that its thermal luminosity, mostly due to e(+)e(-) pair production from the quark surface, may be much higher than the Eddington limit. The mean energy of photons far from the strange star is approximately 10(2) keV or even more. This differs both qualitatively and quantitatively from the thermal emission from neutron stars and provides a definite observational signature for bare strange stars. It is shown that the energy gap of superconducting quark matter may be estimated from the light curves if it is in the range from approximately 0.5 MeV to a few MeV.     

Self-consistent description of the inner crust of a neutron star within a realistic semimicroscopic model

The self-consistent semimicroscopic fully quantum approach developed recently for describing the structure of the inner crust of a neutron star within the Wigner-Seitz method is used to perform a systematic calculation of the properties of the system under study. Only the lowest layers of the crust in the vicinity of the point where a phase transition to a uniform state occurs are excluded from our consideration. Use is made of a realistic microscopic model that treats pairing in neutron matter with allowance for corrections of many-body theory to the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer approximation.     

Maximum stellar iron core mass

An analytical method of estimating the mass of a stellar iron core, just prior to core collapse, is described in this paper. The method employed depends, in part, upon an estimate of the true relativistic mass increase experienced by electrons within a highly compressed iron core, just prior to core collapse, and is significantly different from a more typical Chandrasekhar mass limit approach. This technique produced a maximum stellar iron core mass value of 269 × 10³⁰ kg (1.35 solar masses). This mass value is very near to the typical mass values found for neutron stars in a recent survey of actual neutron star masses. Although slightly lower and higher neutron star masses may also be found, lower mass neutron stars are believed to be formed as a result of enhanced iron core compression due to the weight of non-ferrous matter overlying the iron cores within large stars. And, higher mass neutron stars are likely to be formed as a result of fallback or accretion of additional matter after an initial collapse event involving an iron core having a mass no greater than 2.69 × 10³⁰ kg     

Prospects of detecting baryon and quark superfluidity from cooling neutron stars

Baryon and quark superfluidity in the cooling of neutron stars are investigated. Future observations will allow us to constrain combinations of the neutron or Lambda-hyperon pairing gaps and the star's mass. However, in a hybrid star with a mixed phase of hadrons and quarks, quark gaps larger than a few tenths of an MeV render quark matter virtually invisible for cooling. If the quark gap is smaller, quark superfluidity could be important, but its effects will be nearly impossible to distinguish from those of other baryonic constituents.     

Constraints on the symmetry energy using the mass-radius relation of neutron stars

The nuclear symmetry energy is intimately connected with nuclear astrophysics. This contribution focuses on the estimation of the symmetry energy from experiment and how it is related to the structure of neutron stars. The most important connection is between the radii of neutron stars and the pressure of neutron star matter in the vicinity of the nuclear saturation density n_s. This pressure is essentially controlled by the nuclear symmetry energy parameters S_v and L , the first two coefficients of a Taylor expansion of the symmetry energy around n_s. We discuss constraints on these parameters that can be found from nuclear experiments. We demonstrate that these constraints are largely model-independent by deriving them qualitatively from a simple nuclear model. We also summarize how recent theoretical studies of pure neutron matter can reinforce these constraints. To date, several different astrophysical measurements of neutron star radii have been attempted. Attention is focused on photospheric radius expansion bursts and on thermal emissions from quiescent low-mass X-ray binaries. While none of these observations can, at the present time, determine individual neutron star radii to better than 20% accuracy, the body of observations can be used with Bayesian techniques to effectively constrain them to higher precision. These techniques invert the structure equations and obtain estimates of the pressure-density relation of neutron star matter, not only near n_s, but up to the highest densities found in neutron star interiors. The estimates we derive for neutron star radii are in concordance with predictions from nuclear experiment and theory.