60 research outputs found
A covariant action principle for dissipative fluid dynamics: From formalism to fundamental physics
We present a new variational framework for dissipative general relativistic
fluid dynamics. The model extends the convective variational principle for
multi-fluid systems to account for a range of dissipation channels. The key
ingredients in the construction are i) the use of a lower dimensional matter
space for each fluid component, and ii) an extended functional dependence for
the associated volume forms. In an effort to make the concepts clear, the
formalism is developed in steps with the model example of matter coupled to
heat considered at each level. Thus we discuss a model for heat flow, derive
the relativistic Navier-Stokes equations and discuss why the individual
dissipative stress tensors need not be spacetime symmetric. We argue that the
new formalism, which notably does not involve an expansion away from an assumed
equilibrium state, provides a conceptual breakthrough in this area of research
and provide an ambitious list of directions in which one may want to extend it
in the future. This involves an exciting set of problems, relating to both
applications and foundational issues.Comment: 21 pages RevTex, 3 pdf figures, matches the published version. arXiv
admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1107.1005 by other author
The nonlinear development of the relativistic two-stream instability
The two-stream instability has been mooted as an explanation for a range of
astrophysical applications from GRBs and pulsar glitches to cosmology. Using
the first nonlinear numerical simulations of relativistic multi-species
hydrodynamics we show that the onset and initial growth of the instability is
very well described by linear perturbation theory. In the later stages the
linear and nonlinear description match only qualitatively, and the instability
does not saturate even in the nonlinear case by purely ideal hydrodynamic
effects.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
The dynamics of neutron star crusts: Lagrangian perturbation theory for a relativistic superfluid-elastic system
The inner crust of a mature neutron star is composed of an elastic lattice of
neutron-rich nuclei penetrated by free neutrons. These neutrons can flow
relative to the crust once the star cools below the superfluid transition
temperature. In order to model the dynamics of this system, which is relevant
for a range of problems from pulsar glitches to magnetar seismology and
continuous gravitational-wave emission from rotating deformed neutron stars, we
need to understand general relativistic Lagrangian perturbation theory for
elastic matter coupled to a superfluid component. This paper develops the
relevant formalism to the level required for astrophysical applications.Comment: 31 pages, double spacing, minor typos fixe
A Relativistic Mean Field Model for Entrainment in General Relativistic Superfluid Neutron Stars
General relativistic superfluid neutron stars have a significantly more
intricate dynamics than their ordinary fluid counterparts. Superfluidity allows
different superfluid (and superconducting) species of particles to have
independent fluid flows, a consequence of which is that the fluid equations of
motion contain as many fluid element velocities as superfluid species. Whenever
the particles of one superfluid interact with those of another, the momentum of
each superfluid will be a linear combination of both superfluid velocities.
This leads to the so-called entrainment effect whereby the motion of one
superfluid will induce a momentum in the other superfluid. We have constructed
a fully relativistic model for entrainment between superfluid neutrons and
superconducting protons using a relativistic mean field model
for the nucleons and their interactions. In this context there are two notions
of ``relativistic'': relativistic motion of the individual nucleons with
respect to a local region of the star (i.e. a fluid element containing, say, an
Avogadro's number of particles), and the motion of fluid elements with respect
to the rest of the star. While it is the case that the fluid elements will
typically maintain average speeds at a fraction of that of light, the
supranuclear densities in the core of a neutron star can make the nucleons
themselves have quite high average speeds within each fluid element. The
formalism is applied to the problem of slowly-rotating superfluid neutron star
configurations, a distinguishing characteristic being that the neutrons can
rotate at a rate different from that of the protons.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PR
The dynamics of dissipative multi-fluid neutron star cores
We present a Newtonian multi-fluid formalism for superfluid neutron star
cores, focussing on the additional dissipative terms that arise when one takes
into account the individual dynamical degrees of freedom associated with the
coupled "fluids". The problem is of direct astrophysical interest as the nature
of the dissipative terms can have significant impact on the damping of the
various oscillation modes of the star and the associated gravitational-wave
signatures. A particularly interesting application concerns the
gravitational-wave driven instability of f- and r-modes. We apply the developed
formalism to two specific three-fluid systems: (i) a hyperon core in which both
Lambda and Sigma^- hyperons are present, and (ii) a core of deconfined quarks
in the colour-flavour-locked phase in which a population of neutral K^0 kaons
is present. The formalism is, however, general and can be applied to other
problems in neutron-star dynamics (such as the effect of thermal excitations
close to the superfluid transition temperature) as well as laboratory
multi-fluid systems.Comment: RevTex, no figure
Local magneto-shear instability in Newtonian gravity
The magneto-rotational instability (MRI) - which is due to an interplay
between a sheared background and the magnetic field - is commonly considered a
key ingredient for developing and sustaining turbulence in the outer envelope
of binary neutron star merger remnants. To assess whether (or not) the
instability is active and resolved, criteria originally derived in the
accretion disk literature - thus exploiting the symmetries of such systems -
are often used. In this paper we discuss the magneto-shear instability as a
truly local phenomenon, relaxing common symmetry assumptions on the background
on top of which the instability grows. This makes the discussion well-suited
for highly dynamical environments such as binary mergers. We find that -
although this is somewhat hidden in the usual derivation of the MRI dispersion
relation - the instability crucially depends on the assumed symmetries.
Relaxing the symmetry assumptions on the background we find that the role of
the magnetic field is significantly diminished, as it affects the modes' growth
but does not drive it. This suggests that we should not expect the standard
instability criteria to provide a faithful indication/diagnostic of what "is
actually going on" in mergers. We conclude by making contact with a suitable
filtering operation, as this is key to separating background and fluctuations
in highly dynamical systems.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur
Slowly Rotating General Relativistic Superfluid Neutron Stars with Relativistic Entrainment
Neutron stars that are cold enough should have two or more
superfluids/supercondutors in their inner crusts and cores. The implication of
superfluidity/superconductivity for equilibrium and dynamical neutron star
states is that each individual particle species that forms a condensate must
have its own, independent number density current and equation of motion that
determines that current. An important consequence of the quasiparticle nature
of each condensate is the so-called entrainment effect, i.e. the momentum of a
condensate is a linear combination of its own current and those of the other
condensates. We present here the first fully relativistic modelling of slowly
rotating superfluid neutron stars with entrainment that is accurate to the
second-order in the rotation rates. The stars consist of superfluid neutrons,
superconducting protons, and a highly degenerate, relativistic gas of
electrons. We use a relativistic - mean field model for the
equation of state of the matter and the entrainment. We determine the effect of
a relative rotation between the neutrons and protons on a star's total mass,
shape, and Kepler, mass-shedding limit.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figures, uses ReVTeX
Relativistic Two-stream Instability
We study the (local) propagation of plane waves in a relativistic,
non-dissipative, two-fluid system, allowing for a relative velocity in the
"background" configuration. The main aim is to analyze relativistic two-stream
instability. This instability requires a relative flow -- either across an
interface or when two or more fluids interpenetrate -- and can be triggered,
for example, when one-dimensional plane-waves appear to be left-moving with
respect to one fluid, but right-moving with respect to another. The dispersion
relation of the two-fluid system is studied for different two-fluid equations
of state: (i) the "free" (where there is no direct coupling between the fluid
densities), (ii) coupled, and (iii) entrained (where the fluid momenta are
linear combinations of the velocities) cases are considered in a
frame-independent fashion (eg. no restriction to the rest-frame of either
fluid). As a by-product of our analysis we determine the necessary conditions
for a two-fluid system to be causal and absolutely stable and establish a new
constraint on the entrainment.Comment: 15 pages, 2 eps-figure
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