Phase transitions in neutron star and magnetars and their connection with high energetic bursts in astrophysics

TL;DR

This paper investigates the energy released during phase transitions in neutron stars and magnetars, highlighting their potential connection to high-energy astrophysical phenomena like gamma-ray bursts and giant flares.

Contribution

It provides a detailed calculation of energy release during phase transitions in magnetars, emphasizing differences from normal neutron stars and implications for observed high-energy events.

Findings

Energy release during NS to SS/HS conversion exceeds 10^{53} ergs.

Magnetar conversions release more energy than normal NS conversions.

Energy released can explain giant flares and gamma-ray bursts.

Abstract

The phase transition from normal hadronic matter to quark matter in neutron stars (NS) could give rise to several interesting phenomena. Compact stars can have such exotic states up to their surface (called strange stars (SS)) or they can have quark core surrounded by hadronic matter, known as hybrid stars (HS). As the state of matter of the resultant SS/HS is different from the initial hadronic matter, their masses also differ. Therefore, such conversion leads to huge energy release, sometimes of the order of $10^{53}$ ergs. In the present work we study the qualitative energy released by such conversion. Recent observations reveal huge surface magnetic field in certain stars, termed magnetars. Such huge magnetic fields can modify the equations of state (EOS) of the matter describing the star. Therefore, the mass of magnetars are different from normal NS. The energy released during the conversion process from neutron magnetar (NM) to strange magnetar/hybrid magnetar (SS/HS) is different from normal NS to SS/HS conversion. In this work we calculate the energy release during the phase transition in magnetars. The energy released during NS to SS/HS conversion exceeds the energy released during NM to SM/HM conversion. The energy released during the conversion of NS to SS is always of the order of $10^{53}$ ergs. The amount of energy released during such conversion can only be compared to the energy observed during the gamma ray bursts (GRB). The energy liberated during NM to HM conversion is few times lesser, and is not likely to power GRB at cosmological distances. However, the magnetars are more likely to lose their energy from the magnetic poles and can produce giant flares, which are usually associated with magnetars.