Molecular Dynamics Simulation of Shear Moduli for Coulomb Crystals

Understand

Torsional (shear) oscillations of neutron stars may have been observed in quasiperiodic oscillations of Magnetar Giant Flares.

• The frequencies of these modes depend on the shear modulus of neutron star crust.
• We calculate the shear modulus of Coulomb crystals from molecular dynamics simulations.
• We find that electron screening reduces the shear modulus by about 10% compared to previous Ogata et al.