CMT162

Superfluidity in Disordered Neutron Star Crusts

• Author(s): J. A. Sauls, N. Chamel and M. A. Alpar
• Address: Center for Applied Physics & Superconducting Technologies, Department of Physics, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208
• Date: January 27, 2020
• Journal: Physical Review Letters (submitted) (2020)
• Abstract: Nonequilibrium conditions imposed by neutrino cooling through the liquid-solid transition lead to disorder in the solid crust of neutron stars. Disorder reduces the superfluid fraction, ρ_s/ρ, at densities above that of neutron drip, ρ_d ≈ 4×10¹¹ g/cm³. For an amorphous solid crust the suppression of ρ_s is small, except in the highest density regions of the crust. In contrast to the strong reduction in neutron conduction predicted for coherent Bragg scattering in a crystalline crust, the disordered solid crust supports sufficient neutron superfluid density to account for pulsar glitches.

• Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures

• Eprint: [PDF] [arXiv]

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