Glitching pulsars as gravitational wave sources

TL;DR

This paper reviews models linking pulsar glitches to gravitational wave emission, discussing how detections can reveal insights into neutron star interior physics and the glitch mechanism.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of proposed gravitational wave emission models associated with pulsar glitches and their implications for neutron star matter.

Findings

Glitches may produce detectable gravitational wave signals.

Detection of gravitational waves can inform neutron star interior physics.

Non-detections constrain glitch models.

Abstract

Spinning neutron stars, when observed as pulsars, are seen to undergo occasional spin-up events known as glitches. Despite several decades of study, the physical mechanisms responsible for glitches are still not well understood, but probably involve an interplay between the star's outer elastic crust, and the superfluid and superconducting core that lies within. Glitches will be accompanied by some level of gravitational wave emission. In this article we review proposed models that link gravitational wave emission to glitches, exploring both short duration burst-like emission, and longer-lived signals. We illustrate how detections (and in some cases, non-detections) of gravitational signals probe both the glitch mechanism, and, by extension, the behaviour of matter at high densities.