Modelling neutron star mountains
Modelling neutron star mountains
As the era of gravitational-wave astronomy has well and truly begun, gravitational radiation from rotating neutron stars remains elusive. Rapidly spinning neutron stars are the main targets for continuous-wave searches since, according to general relativity, provided they are asymmetrically deformed, they will emit gravitational waves. It is believed that detecting such radiation will unlock the answer to why no pulsars have been observed to spin close to the break-up frequency. We review existing studies on the maximum mountain that a neutron star crust can support, critique the key assumptions and identify issues relating to boundary conditions that need to be resolved. In light of this discussion, we present a new scheme for modelling neutron star mountains. The crucial ingredient for this scheme is a description of the fiducial force which takes the star away from sphericity. We consider three examples: a source potential which is a solution to Laplace's equation, another solution which does not act in the core of the star and a thermal pressure perturbation. For all the cases, we find that the largest quadrupoles are between a factor of a few to two orders of magnitude below previous estimates of the maximum mountain size.
gravitational waves, stars: neutron
5570-5582
Gittins, F.
657ec875-fac3-4606-9dcd-591ef22fc9f6
Andersson, N.
2dd6d1ee-cefd-478a-b1ac-e6feedafe304
Jones, D. I.
b8f3e32c-d537-445a-a1e4-7436f472e160
1 February 2021
Gittins, F.
657ec875-fac3-4606-9dcd-591ef22fc9f6
Andersson, N.
2dd6d1ee-cefd-478a-b1ac-e6feedafe304
Jones, D. I.
b8f3e32c-d537-445a-a1e4-7436f472e160
Gittins, F., Andersson, N. and Jones, D. I.
(2021)
Modelling neutron star mountains.
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 500 (4), .
(doi:10.1093/mnras/staa3635).
Abstract
As the era of gravitational-wave astronomy has well and truly begun, gravitational radiation from rotating neutron stars remains elusive. Rapidly spinning neutron stars are the main targets for continuous-wave searches since, according to general relativity, provided they are asymmetrically deformed, they will emit gravitational waves. It is believed that detecting such radiation will unlock the answer to why no pulsars have been observed to spin close to the break-up frequency. We review existing studies on the maximum mountain that a neutron star crust can support, critique the key assumptions and identify issues relating to boundary conditions that need to be resolved. In light of this discussion, we present a new scheme for modelling neutron star mountains. The crucial ingredient for this scheme is a description of the fiducial force which takes the star away from sphericity. We consider three examples: a source potential which is a solution to Laplace's equation, another solution which does not act in the core of the star and a thermal pressure perturbation. For all the cases, we find that the largest quadrupoles are between a factor of a few to two orders of magnitude below previous estimates of the maximum mountain size.
Text
2009.12794
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 18 November 2020
e-pub ahead of print date: 21 November 2020
Published date: 1 February 2021
Additional Information:
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 2020 The Author(s) Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal Astronomical Society.
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
Keywords:
gravitational waves, stars: neutron
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Local EPrints ID: 446567
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/446567
ISSN: 1365-2966
PURE UUID: 7b2d8225-561f-40f6-9441-cfcf440b3d33
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Date deposited: 15 Feb 2021 17:31
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 04:09
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Author:
F. Gittins
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