Internal heating of old neutron stars: contrasting different mechanisms

Gonzalez, D.; Reisenegger, Andreas

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201015084

Cited by 99 publications

(90 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Observations of a delayed response in the recovery after a glitch, over a timescale proportional to the glitch size as in (83) would, on the other hand, would provide a hint that vortex slippage is occurring in neutron stars. Finally let us note that vortex creep is a dissipative process and creep heating [21,[191][192][193] might explain the unusually high (for their age) temperatures that have been measured for some old, recycled millisecond pulsars, such as J0437-4715 [194] .…”

Section: A Vortex Slippagementioning

confidence: 99%

Models of pulsar glitches

Haskell

Melatos

2015

Int. J. Mod. Phys. D

324

304

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Radio pulsars provide us with some of the most stable clocks in the universe. Nevertheless several pulsars exhibit sudden spin-up events, known as glitches. More than forty years after their first discovery, the exact origin of these phenomena is still open to debate. It is generally thought that they an observational manifestation of a superfluid component in the stellar interior and provide an insight into the dynamics of matter at extreme densities. In recent years there have been several advances on both the theoretical and observational side, that have provided significant steps forward in our understanding of neutron star interior dynamics and possible glitch mechanisms. In this article we review the main glitch models that have been proposed and discuss our understanding, in the light of current observations.Radio pulsars are thought to be rotating magnetised neutron stars (NS). The huge moment of inertia (of the order of 10 45 g cm 2 ) leads to exceptionally stable rotation rates and provides us with some of the most precise clocks in the universe. The best timed millisecond pulsars are stable to a precision which rivals that of atomic clocks [1]. Nevertheless radio pulsars exhibit several timing irregularities, the most striking of which are the so-called glitches. While most objects are observed to steadily spin-down due to the emission of electromagnetic and, possibly, gravitational waves, many pulsars show sudden increases in their spin, in some cases followed by an increase in their spin-down rate, i.e. glitches. Most pulsars also show slower, long-term, stochastic deviations from a regular spin-down law, that are generally classed as 'timing noise' and are not the main focus of this review article.Soon after the discovery of the first glitches in the Vela [2,3] and Crab [4,5] pulsars in 1969, several mechanisms were suggested to explain these phenomena. Although some initial suggestions featured external mechanisms, such as plasma explosions in the magnetosphere [6] or planets around the pulsar [7], the lack of radiative and pulse profile changes associated with these events was taken as evidence for an internal origin. The situation is different for rotating radio transients (RRATs) and magnetars, which are now known to glitch and do exhibit, amongst other peculiar traits, radiative changes associated with these events [8][9][10][11]. Magnetospheric activity is likely to play a role in these objects, as we discuss below.There are two main internal glitch mechanisms that have been examined in the literature. The first set of models relies on the fact that the outer layers of a neutron star form a crystalline crust that can support stress. As the NS spins down, the liquid core adjusts its shape to the rotation rate, while the solid crust maintains the shape appropriate for the previous, higher, spin rate. This leads to an increasing amount of strain building up in the crust, which is eventually released in the form of a star quake. The quake causes a sudden rearrangement of the moment of inertia and...

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Section: A Vortex Slippagementioning

confidence: 99%

Models of pulsar glitches

Haskell

Melatos

2015

Int. J. Mod. Phys. D

324

304

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“…1, where it is shown by the star symbol). Note that some other internal heating mechanisms (see, e.g., Gonzalez & Reisenegger 2010 for a review) can be competitive with the rotation-induced deep crustal heating, further increasing the temperature of PSR B1937+21 and making it even more unstable. However, as explained in section 2.1, r-modes rapidly heat up an unstable star (on a timescale of a century) and spin it down.…”

Section: Timing Of Mspsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Here we neglect other mechanisms of internal heating, which can contribute to the heating power only at a level of 10 −4 Ė tot rot (e.g., Gonzalez & Reisenegger 2010;Gusakov et al 2015), becoming comparable to the r-mode heating only for very low values of a ∼ 3 × 10 −3 .…”

Section: Narrow Low-temperature Stability Peaks [Model (A)]mentioning

confidence: 99%

R modes and neutron star recycling scenario

Chugunov¹,

Gusakov²,

Kantor

2017

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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To put new constraints on the r-mode instability window, we analyse the formation of millisecond pulsars (MSPs) within the recycling scenario, making use of three sets of observations: (a) X-ray observations of neutron stars (NSs) in low-mass X-ray binaries; (b) timing of millisecond pulsars; and (c) X-ray and UV observations of MSPs. As shown in previous works, r-mode dissipation by shear viscosity is not sufficient to explain observational set (a), and enhanced r-mode dissipation at the red-shifted internal temperatures T ∞ ∼ 10 8 K is required to stabilize the observed NSs. Here, we argue that models with enhanced bulk viscosity can hardly lead to a self-consistent explanation of observational set (a) due to strong neutrino emission, which is typical for these models (unrealistically powerful energy source is required to keep NSs at the observed temperatures). We also demonstrate that the observational set (b) , combined with the theory of internal heating and NS cooling, provides evidence of enhanced r-mode dissipation at low temperatures, T ∞ ∼ 2×10 7 K. Observational set (c) allows us to set an upper limit on the internal temperatures of MSPs, T ∞ < 2 × 10 7 K (assuming a canonical NS with the accreted crust). Recycling scenario can produce MSPs at these temperatures only if r-mode instability is suppressed in the whole MSP spin frequency range (ν 750 Hz) at temperatures 2 × 10 7 T ∞ 3 × 10 7 K, providing thus a new constraint on the r-mode instability window. These observational constraints are analysed in more details in application to the resonance uplift scenario of Gusakov et al. (2014b,a).

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“…Finally, we note that there are other heating mechanisms proposed in the literature [80], such as the vortex creep heating [81][82][83][84][85][86] and rotationally-induced deep crustal heating [87]. These heating mechanisms may also compete with the rotochemical and DM heating effects, and therefore the consequence drawn in this letter may be altered if they are also included.…”

Section: Conclusion and Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Dark matter heating vs. rotochemical heating in old neutron stars

Hamaguchi

Yanagi

2019

Physics Letters B

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Dark matter (DM) particles in the Universe accumulate in neutron stars (NSs) through their interactions with ordinary matter. It has been known that their annihilation inside the NS core causes late-time heating, with which the surface temperature becomes a constant value of Ts (2 − 3) × 10 3 K for the NS age t 10 6−7 years. This conclusion is, however, drawn based on the assumption that the beta equilibrium is maintained in NSs throughout their life, which turns out to be invalid for rotating pulsars. The slowdown in the pulsar rotation drives the NS matter out of beta equilibrium, and the resultant imbalance in chemical potentials induces late-time heating, dubbed as rotochemical heating. This effect can heat a NS up to Ts 10 6 K for t 10 6−7 years. In fact, recent observations found several old NSs whose surface temperature is much higher than the prediction of the standard cooling scenario and is consistent with the rotochemical heating. Motivated by these observations, in this letter, we reevaluate the significance of the DM heating in NSs, including the effect of the rotochemical heating. We then show that the signature of DM heating can still be detected in old ordinary pulsars, while it is concealed by the rotochemical heating for old millisecond pulsars. To confirm the evidence for the DM heating, however, it is necessary to improve our knowledge on nucleon pairing gaps as well as to evaluate the initial period of the pulsars accurately. In any cases, a discovery of a very cold NS can give a robust constraint on the DM heating, and thus on DM models. To demonstrate this, as an example, we also discuss the case that the DM is the neutral component of an electroweak multiplet, and show that an observation of a NS with Ts 10 3 K imposes a stringent constraint on such a DM candidate.

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Internal heating of old neutron stars: contrasting different mechanisms

Cited by 99 publications

References 39 publications

Models of pulsar glitches

Models of pulsar glitches

R modes and neutron star recycling scenario

Dark matter heating vs. rotochemical heating in old neutron stars

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