We compare Path Integral Monte Carlo calculations by Militzer and Pollock (Phys. Rev. B 71, 134303, 2005) of Coulomb tunneling in nuclear reactions in dense matter to semiclassical calculations assuming WKB Coulomb barrier penetration through the radial mean-field potential. We find a very good agreement of two approaches at temperatures higher than ∼

The breaking stress (the maximum of the stress-strain curve) of neutron star crust is important for neutron star physics including pulsar glitches, emission of gravitational waves from static mountains, and flares from star quakes. We perform many molecular dynamic simulations of the breaking stress at different coupling parameters (inverse temperatures) and strain rates. We describe our results with the Zhurkov model of strength. We apply this model to estimate the breaking stress for timescales ~1 s - 1 year, which are most important for applications, but much longer than can be directly simulated. At these timescales the breaking stress depends strongly on the temperature. For coupling parameter <200, matter breaks at very small stress, if it is applied for a few years. This viscoelastic creep can limit the lifetime of mountains on neutron stars. We also suggest an alternative model of timescale-independent breaking stress, which can be used to estimate an upper limit on the breaking stress.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Letter

The strength of neutron star crust is crucial for modelling magnetar flares, pulsar glitches and gravitational wave emission. We aim to shed some light on this problem by analysing uniaxial stretch deformation (elongation and contraction) of perfect bodycentered cubic Coulomb crystals, paying special attention to the inherent anisotropy of this process. Our analysis is based on the semi-analytical approach of Baiko & Kozhberov (2017), which, for any uniform deformation, allows one to calculate, in fully non-linear regime, critical deformation parameters beyond which the lattice loses its dynamic stability. We determine critical strain, pressure anisotropy and deformation energy for any stretch direction with respect to the crystallographic axes. These quantities are shown to be strongly anisotropic: they vary by a factor of almost 10 depending on the orientation of the deformation axis. For polycrystalline crust, we argue that the maximum strain for the stretch deformation sustainable elastically is 0.04. It is lower than the breaking strain of 0.1 obtained in molecular dynamic simulations of a shear deformation by Horowitz & Kadau (2009). The maximum pressure anisotropy of polycrystalline matter is estimated to be in the range from 0.005 to 0.014 nZ 2 e 2 /a, where n is the ion number density, Ze is the ion charge, and a is the ion-sphere radius. We discuss possible mechanisms of plastic motion and formation of large crystallites in neutron star crust as well as analyse energy release associated with breaking of such crystallites in the context of magnetic field evolution and magnetar flaring activity.

We calculate the electron shear viscosity (determined by Coulomb electron collisions) for a dense matter in a wide range of parameters typical for white dwarf cores and neutron star crusts. In the density range from ∼ 10 3 g cm −3 to 10 7 − 10 10 g cm −3 we consider the matter composed of widely abundant astrophysical elements, from H to Fe. For higher densities, 10 10 − 10 14 g cm −3 , we employ the ground-state nuclear composition, taking into account finite sizes of atomic nuclei and the distribution of proton charge over the nucleus. Numerical values of the viscosity are approximated by an analytic expression convenient for applications. Using the approximation of plane-parallel layer we study eigenfrequencies, eigenmodes and viscous damping times of oscillations of high multipolarity, l ∼ 500 − 1000, localized in the outer crust of a neutron star. For instance, at l ∼ 500 oscillations have frequencies f 40 kHz and are localized not deeper than ∼300 m from the surface. When the crust temperature decreases from 10 9 K to 10 7 K, the dissipation time of these oscillations (with a few radial nodes) decreases from ∼ 1 year to 10-15 days.

We consider an instability of rapidly rotating neutron stars in low-mass x-ray binaries (LMXBs) with respect to excitation of r modes (which are analogous to Earth's Rossby waves controlled by the Coriolis force). We argue that finite temperature effects in the superfluid core of a neutron star lead to a resonance coupling and enhanced damping (and hence stability) of oscillation modes at certain stellar temperatures. Using a simple phenomenological model we demonstrate that neutron stars with high spin frequency may spend a substantial amount of time at these "resonance" temperatures. This finding allows us to explain puzzling observations of hot rapidly rotating neutron stars in LMXBs and to predict a new class of hot, nonaccreting, rapidly rotating neutron stars, some of which may have already been observed and tentatively identified as quiescent LMXB candidates. We also impose a new theoretical limit on the neutron star spin frequency, which can explain the cutoff spin frequency ∼730  Hz, following from the statistical analysis of accreting millisecond x-ray pulsars. In addition to explaining the observations, our model provides a new tool to constrain superdense matter properties by comparing measured and theoretically predicted resonance temperatures.

We combined Chandra ACIS observations of the globular cluster 47 Tucanae (hereafter, 47 Tuc) from 2000, 2002, and 2014-15 to create a deeper X-ray source list, and study some of the faint radio millisecond pulsars (MSPs) present in this cluster. We have detected 370 X-ray sources within the half-mass radius (2 .79) of the cluster, 81 of which are newly identified, by including new data and using improved source detection techniques. The majority of the newly identified sources are in the crowded core region, indicating cluster membership. We associate five of the new X-ray sources with chromospherically active BY Dra or W UMa variables identified by Albrow et al. (2001). We present alternative positions derived from two methods, centroiding and image reconstruction, for faint, crowded sources. We are able to extract X-ray spectra of the recently discovered MSPs 47 Tuc aa, 47 Tuc ab, the newly timed MSP 47 Tuc Z, and the newly resolved MSPs 47 Tuc S and 47 Tuc F. Generally, they are well fit by black body or neutron star atmosphere models, with temperatures, luminosities and emitting radii similar to those of other known MSPs in 47 Tuc, though 47 Tuc aa and 47 Tuc ab reach lower X-ray luminosities. We limit X-ray emission from the full surface of the rapidly spinning (542 Hz) MSP 47 Tuc aa, and use this limit to put an upper bound for amplitude of r-mode oscillations in this pulsar as α < 2.5 × 10 −9 and constrain the shape of the r-mode instability window.

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We analyze damping of oscillations of general relativistic superfluid neutron stars. To this aim we extend the method of decoupling of superfluid and normal oscillation modes first suggested in [Gusakov & Kantor PRD 83, 081304(R) (2011)]. All calculations are made self-consistently within the finite temperature superfluid hydrodynamics. The general analytic formulas are derived for damping times due to the shear and bulk viscosities. These formulas describe both normal and superfluid neutron stars and are valid for oscillation modes of arbitrary multipolarity. We show that: (i) use of the ordinary one-fluid hydrodynamics is a good approximation, for most of the stellar temperatures, if one is interested in calculation of the damping times of normal f -modes; (ii) for radial and p-modes such an approximation is poor; (iii) the temperature dependence of damping times undergoes a set of rapid changes associated with resonance coupling of neighboring oscillation modes. The latter effect can substantially accelerate viscous damping of normal modes in certain stages of neutron-star thermal evolution.