Hydromagnetic stability of differentially rotating neutron stars

A. F. Ioffe Institute for Physics and Technology, SU 194021, St. Petersburg, Russia 
Isaak Newton Institute of Chili, Branch in St. Petersburg, Russia

Corresponding author: vadim.urpin@uv.es

Received: 31 March 2003
Accepted: 21 August 2003

Abstract

The stability properties of differentially rotating magnetic neutron stars are considered, and the instability criteria are obtained. The influence of the magnetic field is twofold: it may stabilize a fluid against some instabilities, on the one hand, and it can lead to new branches of instabilities, on the other hand. It turns out that some of the instability criteria of magnetic neutron stars can be satisfied at smaller departures from the uniform rotation than the criteria of non-magnetic stars. Interaction of hydrodynamic motions caused by instabilities in the core with the neutron star crust can result in small irregularities in the measured spin period of pulsars.