Quantized electrical conductivity in binary neutron star mergers

TL;DR

This paper investigates how strong magnetic fields and quantum effects influence electrical conductivity in neutron star mergers, highlighting the importance of dissipative processes in merger dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum-mechanical approach to modeling electrical conductivity in magnetized neutron star merger environments, considering Landau level effects and magnetic screening.

Findings

Magnetically modified screening has minimal impact on conductivity.

Frequency-dependent screening significantly reduces electrical conductivity.

Reduced conductivity shortens the Ohmic decay timescale to merger-relevant durations.

Abstract

We examine nature of longitudinal electrical conductivity in magnetized electron-ion plasma in the context of binary neutron star mergers. In presence of strong magnetic field, high density and temperature, quantum oscillatory behaviour for electrons emerge due to breakdown of the classical description. For pronounced thermodynamic effects, we consider zeroth Landau level population of electrons for electrical conductivity. We solve Boltzmann equation in presence of magnetic field to obtain the dissipative component of the conductivity. The conductivity is formulated considering dynamically scattering centres in the medium with magnetically modified screening. Numerical estimations show that the effect of magnetically modified screening mass on electrical conductivity is less. On the other hand, we observe that frequency dependent screening reduces electrical conductivity leading to a reduction in the Ohmic decay time scale to become of the order of the characteristic timescale of the merger process in the low density regime. This indicates the relevance of dissipative process for the merger simulation in the above mentioned domain.