Nuclear Physics Seminar
r-mode instability and critical rotation frequency of compact stars
Prashanth Jaikumar (IMSc Chennai & Argonne)
We present results from a study of the r-mode instability in
compact stars containing superfluid quark matter. The r-mode
instability is present for all rapidly rotating compact stars, causing
energy loss due to gravitational wave emission. However, it is damped
by viscous forces that allow such a star to spin faster than expected.
For neutron stars as well as hybrid stars containing gapped or
ungapped quark matter, we present results for the r-mode frequency,
damping timescale and the critical frequency above which the r-mode
becomes unstable. Except at high temperatures T>10^10K, the presence
of a quark phase allows for larger critical frequencies and smaller
spin-periods compared to rotating neutron stars. We discuss
implications for low-mass X-ray binaries and gravitational wave
detection.
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