No Arabic abstract
We study the superfluid dynamics of the outer core of neutron stars by means of a hydrodynamic model made of a neutronic superfluid and a protonic superconductor, coupled by both the dynamic entrainment and the Skyrme SLy4 nucleon-nucleon interactions. The resulting nonlinear equations of motion are probed in the search for dynamical instabilities triggered by the relative motion of the superfluids that could be related to observed timing anomalies in pulsars. Through linear analysis, the origin and expected growth of the instabilities is explored for varying nuclear-matter density. Differently from previous findings, the dispersion of linear excitations in our model shows rotonic structures below the pair-breaking energy threshold, which lies at the origin of the dynamical instabilities, and could eventually lead to emergent vorticity along with modulations of the superfluid density.
When hadron-quark continuity is formulated in terms of a topology change at a density higher than twice the nuclear matter densiy $n_0$ the core of massive compact stars can be described in terms of quasiparticles of fractional baryon charges, behaving neither like pure baryons nor deconfined quarks. Hidden symmetries, both local gauge and pseudo-conformal (or broken scale), emerge and give rise to the long-standing quenched $g_A$ in nuclear Gamow-Teller transitions at $sim n_0$ and to the pseudo-conformal sound velocity $v_{pcs}^2/c^2approx 1/3$ at $gsim 3n_0$. These properties are confronted with the recent observations in superallowed Gamow-Teller transitions and in astrophysical observations.
The adiabatic self-consistent collective coordinate (ASCC) method is a practical method for the description of large-amplitude collective motion in atomic nuclei with superfluidity and an advanced version of the adiabatic time-dependent Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov theory. We investigate the gauge symmetry in the ASCC method on the basis of the theory of constrained systems. The gauge symmetry in the ASCC method is originated from the constraint on the particle number in the collective Hamiltonian, and it is partially broken by the adiabatic expansion. The validity of the adiabatic expansion under the general gauge transformation is also discussed.
We report on a new mechanism for heat conduction in the neutron star crust. We find that collective modes of superfluid neutron matter, called superfluid phonons (sPhs), can influence heat conduction in magnetized neutron stars. They can dominate the heat conduction transverse to magnetic field when the magnetic field $B gsim 10^{13}$ G. At density $rho simeq 10^{12}-10^{14} $ g/cm$^3$ the conductivity due to sPhs is significantly larger than that due to lattice phonons and is comparable to electron conductivity when temperature $simeq 10^8$ K. This new mode of heat conduction can limit the surface anisotropy in highly magnetized neutron stars. Cooling curves of magnetized neutron stars with and without superfluid heat conduction could show observationally discernible differences.
The possibility to draw links between the isospin properties of nuclei and the structure of compact stars is a stimulating perspective. In order to pursue this objective on a sound basis, the correlations from which such links can be deduced have to be carefully checked against model dependence. Using a variety of nuclear effective models and a microscopic approach, we study the relation between the predictions of a given model and those of a Taylor density development of the corresponding equation of state: this establishes to what extent a limited set of phenomenological constraints can determine the core-crust transition properties. From a correlation analysis we show that a) the transition density $rho_t$ is mainly correlated with the symmetry energy slope $L$, b) the proton fraction $Y_{p,t}$ with the symmetry energy and symmetry energy slope $(J,L)$ defined at saturation density, or, even better, with the same quantities defined at $rho=0.1$ fm$^{-3}$, and c) the transition pressure $P_t$ with the symmetry energy slope and curvature $(J,K_{rm sym})$ defined at $rho=0.1$ fm$^{-3}$.
I discuss the advantages and disadvantages of several procedures, some known and some new, for constructing stationary states within the mean field approximation for a system with pairing correlations and unequal numbers spin-up and spin-down fermions, using the two chemical potentials framework. One procedure in particular appears to have significant physics advantages over previously suggested in the literature computational frameworks. Moreover, this framework is applicable to study strongly polarized superfluid fermion systems with arbitrarily large polarizations and with arbitrary total particle numbers. These methods are equally applicable to normal systems.