Superfluid vortices in neutron stars

Abstract

A microscopic, quantum mechanical model for neutron vortices in the crust of a neutron star is presented. After a brief introduction to the Bogoliubov- de Gennes equations, which form the basis for our calculations, we present results for density distributions, vortex core sizes and vortex energies, both for an isolated neutron vortex and for the case when the vortex core overlaps with a cylindrical nucleus. Earlier results on the vortex core size are confirmed, indicating a much less dramatic variation of the vortex core size with density than predicted by the BCS formula.Comment: 28 pages, 8 figures. To appear in Astronomy & Astrophysic