Properties of glitching pulsars in the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock framework

TL;DR

This paper investigates neutron star crustal properties and their relation to pulsar glitches using the Skyrme-Hartree-Fock framework, providing insights into crustal mass, radius, and moment of inertia fractions.

Contribution

It applies extended Skyrme effective interactions to determine neutron star properties, linking crustal characteristics to observed pulsar glitch phenomena.

Findings

Maximum neutron star mass reaches ~2 solar masses.

Crustal moment of inertia fraction is about 5.5%.

Crustal properties constrain pulsar radii.

Abstract

We address the issues of crustal properties of neutron stars such as crustal mass, crustal radius, crustal fraction of moment of inertia and investigate the crustal and structural properties related to the glitching mechanism observed in pulsars. The mass, radius and crustal fraction of moment of inertia in neutron stars have been determined using $\beta$-equilibrated (npe$\mu$) dense neutron star matter obtained using the extended Skyrme effective interactions with NRAPR and Brussels-Montreal parameter sets. The maximum mass of neutron star calculated from these sets is able to reach $\sim$2$M_\odot$ and higher, corroborating the recently observed masses of compact stars. The crustal fraction of the moment of inertia depends sensitively on the pressure and corresponding density at core-crust transition. The core-crust transition density and pressure together with the extracted minimum crustal fraction of the total moment of inertia provide a limit for the radii of pulsars. Present calculations imply that due to crustal entrainment the crustal fraction of the total moment of inertia is about 5.5$\%$.