Gusakov ME, Chugunov AI, Kantor EM. Instability windows and evolution of rapidly rotating neutron stars.
PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2014;
112:151101. [PMID:
24785021 DOI:
10.1103/physrevlett.112.151101]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/29/2013] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
We consider an instability of rapidly rotating neutron stars in low-mass x-ray binaries (LMXBs) with respect to excitation of r modes (which are analogous to Earth's Rossby waves controlled by the Coriolis force). We argue that finite temperature effects in the superfluid core of a neutron star lead to a resonance coupling and enhanced damping (and hence stability) of oscillation modes at certain stellar temperatures. Using a simple phenomenological model we demonstrate that neutron stars with high spin frequency may spend a substantial amount of time at these "resonance" temperatures. This finding allows us to explain puzzling observations of hot rapidly rotating neutron stars in LMXBs and to predict a new class of hot, nonaccreting, rapidly rotating neutron stars, some of which may have already been observed and tentatively identified as quiescent LMXB candidates. We also impose a new theoretical limit on the neutron star spin frequency, which can explain the cutoff spin frequency ∼730 Hz, following from the statistical analysis of accreting millisecond x-ray pulsars. In addition to explaining the observations, our model provides a new tool to constrain superdense matter properties by comparing measured and theoretically predicted resonance temperatures.
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