Neutron-superfluid vortices and proton-superconductor flux tubes: Development of a minimal model for pulsar glitches

TL;DR

This paper develops a comprehensive 3D theoretical model of neutron vortices and proton flux tubes in pulsars, revealing their interactions, magnetization effects, and how these lead to observable pulsar glitches exhibiting self-organized criticality.

Contribution

The paper introduces a minimal, coupled 3D model combining GPPE, RTGLE, and Maxwell equations to simulate neutron star superfluid and superconductor interactions, including crust effects and glitch dynamics.

Findings

Proton flux tubes generate a uniform London magnetic field.

Neutron vortices and proton flux tubes attract or repel depending on interactions.

Glitch events exhibit self-organized criticality in simulations.

Abstract

We develop a theoretical framework that allows us to explore the coupled motion of neutron-superfluid vortices and proton-superconductor flux tubes in a gravitationally collapsed condensate, which describe neutron stars that form pulsars. Our framework uses the 3D Gross-Pitaevskii-Poisson-Equation (GPPE) for neutron Cooper pairs, the Real-Time-Ginzburg-Landau equation (RTGLE) for proton Cooper pairs, the Maxwell equations for the vector potential ${\bf A}$, and Newtonian gravity and interactions, both direct and induced by the Poisson equation, between the neutron and proton subsystems. For a pulsar we include a crust potential, characterized by an angle $\theta$, and frictional drag. By carrying out extensive direct numerical simulations, we obtain a variety of interesting results. We show that a rotating proton superconductor generates a uniform London magnetic field, which changes the field distribution inside flux tubes. In the absence of any direct interaction between the two species, they interact through the gravitational Poisson equation. The presence of attractive (repulsive) density-density interaction leads to the attraction (repulsion) between neutron vortices and proton flux tubes. The inclusion of the current-current interaction and the complete Maxwell equations allows us to quantify the entrainment effect that leads to induced magnetization of neutron vortices. We show that, with a strong external magnetic field ${\bf B}_{\rm ext}$, proton flux tubes are anchored to the crust, whereas neutron vortices leave the condensate and lead to abrupt changes of the crust angular momentum ${\rm J}_c$. The frictional term in the dynamical equation for $\theta$ yields stick-slip dynamics that leads, in turn, to glitches in the time series of ${\rm J}_c$. By calculating various statistical properties of this time series, we demonstrate that they display self-organised criticality(SOC).