Friday, October 28, 2011

1110.5985 (De-Hua Wen et al.)

How sensitive is the neutron star r-mode instability window to the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy?    [PDF]

De-Hua Wen, W. G. Newton, Bao-An Li
Using a simple model of a neutron star with a perfectly rigid crust constructed with a set of crust and core equations of state that span the range of nuclear experimental uncertainty in the symmetry energy, we calculate the instability window for the onset of the Chandrasekhar-Friedmann-Schutz (CFS) instability in r-mode oscillations for canonical neutron stars ($1.4 M_{\odot}$) and massive neutron stars ($2.0 M_{\odot}$). The crustal thickness is calculated consistently with the core equation of state (EOS). The EOSs are calculated using a simple model for the energy density of nuclear matter and probe the dependence on the symmetry energy by varying the slope of the symmetry energy at saturation density $L$ from 25 MeV (soft symmetry energy and EOS) to 115 MeV (stiff symmetry energy and EOS) while keeping the EOS of symmetric nuclear matter fixed. The instability window is reduced by a frequency of up to $\approx150Hz$ from the softest to the stiffest EOSs and by $\approx 100$ Hz from $1.4 M_{\odot}$ to $2.0 M_{\odot}$ stars for a fixed EOS. Where temperature estimates are available, the observed neutron stars in low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) have frequencies below the instability window for the $1.4 M_{\odot}$ models, while some LMXBs fall within the instability window for $2.0 M_{\odot}$ stars if the symmetry energy is relatively stiff, indicating that a softer symmetry energy is more consistent with observations within this model. The critical temperature, below which no star can reach the instability window without exceeding its Kepler frequency, varies by nearly an order of magnitude from soft to stiff symmetry energies. When the crust thickness and core EOS are treated consistently, a thicker crust corresponds to a lower critical temperature, the opposite result to previous studies in which the transition density was independent of the core EOS.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1110.5985

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