Speaker
Description
Pulsars, rotating neutron stars with extreme magnetic fields, exhibit a gradual spin-down driven by electromagnetic torque and energy loss. Superimposed on this secular spin-down are glitches—sudden increases in rotational frequency—believed to arise from the interplay between the crustal superfluid and the rigid stellar crust. In this work, we investigate the connection between the spin-down rate and glitch activity, leveraging observational data from a diverse sample of pulsars. Our analysis reveals a strong correlation between the magnitude of spin-down rate and glitch occurrence rates, with pulsars exhibiting higher spin-down rates showing enhanced glitch activity. These findings are consistent with theoretical models positing that differential rotation between the crustal superfluid and the solid crust leads to stress accumulation at vortex pinning sites, which is ultimately released as a glitch. We further explore the dependence of glitch sizes and intervals on spin-down rate, providing evidence that faster spin-down accelerates angular momentum transfer between the crust and superfluid reservoir. This study underscores the role of spin-down dynamics in driving the internal processes governing glitch phenomena and highlights their importance for probing neutron star interiors, including crust-superfluid coupling, equation of state, and long-term stellar evolution.
| Stream | Science |
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