Resonant Shattering Flares as Multimessenger Probes of the Nuclear Symmetry Energy

The behaviour of the nuclear symmetry energy near saturation density is important for our understanding of dense nuclear matter. This density dependence can be parameterised by the nuclear symmetry energy and its derivatives evaluated at nuclear saturation density. In this work we show that the core-crust interface mode of a neutron star is sensitive to these parameters, through the (density-weighted) shear-speed within the crust, which is in turn dependent on the symmetry energy profile of dense matter. We calculate the frequency at which the neutron star quadrupole ($\ell = 2$) crust-core interface mode must be driven by the tidal field of its binary partner to trigger a Resonant Shattering Flare (RSF). We demonstrate that coincident multimessenger timing of an RSF and gravitational wave chirp from a neutron star merger would enable us to place constraints on the symmetry energy parameters that are competitive with those from current nuclear experiments.Comment: 15 pages, 19 figures, accepted in MNRA

A method of evaluating efficiency during space-suited work in a neutral buoyancy environment

The purpose was to investigate efficiency as related to the work transmission and the metabolic cost of various extravehicular activity (EVA) tasks during simulated microgravity (whole body water immersion) using three space suits. Two new prototype space station suits, AX-5 and MKIII, are pressurized at 57.2 kPa and were tested concurrently with the operationally used 29.6 kPa shuttle suit. Four male astronauts were asked to perform a fatigue trial on four upper extremity exercises during which metabolic rate and work output were measured and efficiency was calculated in each suit. The activities were selected to simulate actual EVA tasks. The test article was an underwater dynamometry system to which the astronauts were secured by foot restraints. All metabolic data was acquired, calculated, and stored using a computerized indirect calorimetry system connected to the suit ventilation/gas supply control console. During the efficiency testing, steady state metabolic rate could be evaluated as well as work transmitted to the dynamometer. Mechanical efficiency could then be calculated for each astronaut in each suit performing each movement

Constraints on the symmetry energy from observational probes of the neutron star crust

A number of observed phenomena associated with individual neutron star systems or neutron star populations find explanations in models in which the neutron star crust plays an important role. We review recent work examining the sensitivity to the slope of the symmetry energy $L$ of such models, and constraints extracted on $L$ from confronting them with observations. We focus on six sets of observations and proposed explanations: (i) The cooling rate of the neutron star in Cassiopeia A, confronting cooling models which include enhanced cooling in the nuclear pasta regions of the inner crust, (ii) the upper limit of the observed periods of young X-ray pulsars, confronting models of magnetic field decay in the crust caused by the high resistivity of the nuclear pasta layer, (iii) glitches from the Vela pulsar, confronting the paradigm that they arise due to a sudden re-coupling of the crustal neutron superfluid to the crustal lattice after a period during which they were decoupled due to vortex pinning, (iv) The frequencies of quasi-periodic oscillations in the X-ray tail of light curves from giant flares from soft gamma-ray repeaters, confronting models of torsional crust oscillations, (v) the upper limit on the frequency to which millisecond pulsars can be spun-up due to accretion from a binary companion, confronting models of the r-mode instability arising above a threshold frequency determined in part by the viscous dissipation timescale at the crust-core boundary, and (vi) the observations of precursor electromagnetic flares a few seconds before short gamma-ray bursts, confronting a model of crust shattering caused by resonant excitation of a crustal oscillation mode by the tidal gravitational field of a companion neutron star just before merger.Comment: 19 pages, 10 figure and 1 tabl