Astronomers use Earthquakes to Understand Glitches on Neutron Stars - by PaulMattSutter
Astronomers do not fully understand what causes the glitches, but recently a team of researchers put together a. The model is based on earthquakes. Earthquakes have many causes, but one of them is when too much tension and pressure builds up between tectonic plates and the crust of the Earth buckles under the pressure. That results in an earthquake and a resettling of the material in the Earth.
When it comes to neutron stars, their complex interiors can also undergo enormous pressures, with components of the neutron star material pressing up against other parts. If the pressure becomes too much, the neutron star rearranges itself, triggering a starquake and a realignment of its own interior. With the new distribution of mass within the neutron star a new rotation rate emerges.
The researchers used this earthquake model to try to determine what is at the interior of neutron stars. The deep cores of neutron stars could be neutrons in a highly exotic state, or a more degenerate form of matter made almost entirely of strange quarks. The researchers found that the model of the neutron star interior that included strange quarks was better able to produce glitches through a starquake mechanism.
Astronomers will need to make further observations to test this idea, but it shows how the observational features of neutron stars can give us hints as to their mysterious interiors.
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