Insights into the physics of neutron star interiors from pulsar glitches

Understand

The presence of superfluid phases in the interior of a neutron star affects its dynamics, as neutrons can flow relative to the non-superfluid (normal) components of the star with little or no viscosity.

• A probe of superfluidity comes from pulsar glitches, sudden jumps in the observed rotational period of radio pulsars.
• Most models of glitches build on the idea that a superfluid component of the star is decoupled from the spin-down of the normal component, and its sudden recoupling leads to a glitch.
• This transition in the strength of the hydrodynamic coupling is explained in terms of quantum vortices (long-lived vortices that are naturally present in the neutron superfluid at the microscopic scale).