Impact of stratified rotation on the moment of inertia of neutron stars

TL;DR

This paper investigates how deviations from uniform rotation inside neutron stars, due to superfluidity or phase transitions, affect their moment of inertia and related observable properties, highlighting the importance of non-rigidity effects.

Contribution

It introduces a model of neutron stars with differential rotation and quantifies how internal angular velocity jumps influence the moment of inertia and universal relations.

Findings

Relative change in moment of inertia depends nonlinearly on jump location.

Small changes occur if the jump is within 40% of the star's radius.

Non-rigidity affects observable properties like radius, ellipticity, and universal relations.

Abstract

Rigid (Uniform) rotation is usually assumed when investigating the properties of mature neutron stars (NSs). Although it simplifies their description, it is an assumption because we cannot observe the NS's innermost parts. Here, we analyze the structure of NSs in the simple case of ''almost rigidity,'' where the innermost and outermost parts rotate with different angular velocities. This is motivated by the possibility of NSs having superfluid interiors, phase transitions, and angular momentum transfer during accretion processes. We show that, in general relativity, the relative difference in angular velocity between different parts of an NS induces a change in the moment of inertia compared to that of rigid rotation. The relative change depends nonlinearly on where the angular velocity jump occurs inside the NS. For the same observed angular velocity in both configurations, if the jump location is close to the star's surface-which is possible in central compact objects (CCOs) and accreting stars-the relative change in the moment of inertia is close to that of the angular velocity (which is expected due to total angular momentum aspects). If the jump occurs deep within the NS, for instance, due to phase transitions or superfluidity, smaller relative changes in the moment of inertia are observed; we found that if it is at a radial distance smaller than approximately $40\%$ of the star's radius, the relative changes are negligible. Additionally, we outline the relevance of systematic uncertainties that nonrigidity could have on some NS observables, such as radius, ellipticity, and the rotational energy budget of pulsars, which could explain the X-ray luminosity of some sources. Finally, we also show that non-rigidity weakens the universal $I$-Love-$Q$ relations.