Mountain formation by repeated, inhomogeneous crustal failure in a neutron star

Understand

The elastic crust of a neutron star fractures repeatedly as it spins down electromagnetically.

• An idealised, macroscopic model of inhomogeneous crustal failure is presented based on a cellular automaton with nearest-neighbour tectonic interactions involving strain redistribution and thermal dissipation.
• Predictions are made of the size and waiting-time distributions of failure events, as well as the rate of failure as the star spins down.
• The last failure event typically occurs when the star spins down to approximately 1% of its birth frequency with implications for rotational glitch activity.