Rapid rotational crust-core relaxation in magnetars

Institute for Theoretical Physics, J. W. Goethe University, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
e-mail: sedrakian@th.physik.uni-frankfurt.de

Received: 1 January 2016
Accepted: 24 January 2016

Abstract

If a magnetar interior B-field exceeds 10¹⁵ G, it will unpair the proton superconductor in the stellar core by inducing diamagnetic currents that destroy the Cooper pair coherence. Then, the P-wave neutron superfluid in these non-superconducting regions will couple to the stellar plasma by scattering of protons off the quasiparticles that are confined in the cores of neutron vortices by the strong (nuclear) force. The dynamical timescales associated with this interaction span from several minutes at the crust-core interface to a few seconds in the deep core. We show that (a) the rapid crust-core coupling is incompatible with oscillation models of magnetars that completely decouple the core superfluid from the crust and (b) magnetar precession is damped by the coupling of normal fluids to the superfluid core and, if observed, needs to be forced or continuously excited by seismic activity.