Open Access
Are neutron stars crushed? Gravitomagnetic tidal forces as a mechanism for binary-induced collapse
Marc Favata,Kip S. Thorne +1 more
TLDR
In this paper, it was shown that if a nonrotating neutron star possesses a current quadrupole moment, interactions with a gravitomagnetic tidal field can lead to a compressive force on the star.Abstract:
Numerical simulations of binary neutron stars by Wilson, Mathews, and Marronetti indicated that neutron stars that are stable in isolation can be made to collapse to black holes when placed in a binary. This claim was surprising as it ran counter to the Newtonian expectation that a neutron star in a binary should be more stable, not less. After correcting an error found by Flanagan, Wilson and Mathews found that the compression of the neutron stars was significantly reduced but not eliminated. This has motivated us to ask the following general question: Under what circumstances can general-relativistic tidal interactions cause an otherwise stable neutron star to be compressed? We have found that if a nonrotating neutron star possesses a current-quadrupole moment, interactions with a gravitomagnetic tidal field can lead to a compressive force on the star. If this current quadrupole is induced by the gravitomagnetic tidal field, it is related to the tidal field by an equation-of-state-dependent constant called the gravitomagnetic Love number. This is analogous to the Newtonian Love number that relates the strength of a Newtonian tidal field to the induced mass quadrupole moment of a star. The compressive force is almost never larger than the Newtonian tidalmore » interaction that stabilizes the neutron star against collapse. In the case in which a current quadrupole is already present in the star (perhaps as an artifact of a numerical simulation), the compressive force can exceed the stabilizing one, leading to a net increase in the central density of the star. This increase is small (< or approx. 1%) but could, in principle, cause gravitational collapse in a star that is close to its maximum mass. This paper also reviews the history of the Wilson-Mathews-Marronetti controversy and, in an appendix, extends the discussion of tidally induced changes in the central density to rotating stars.« lessread more
Citations
More filters
Journal Article
Relativistic theory of tidal Love numbers
Eric Poisson,Taylor Binnington +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, a relativistic theory of Love numbers is presented for compact bodies with strong internal gravities. But the theory is not applicable to non-rotating black holes.
Relativistic Numerical Hydrodynamics
James R. Wilson,Grant J. Mathews +1 more
TL;DR: In this article, the authors introduce relativistic hydrodynamics in three spatial dimensions and show that they can be expressed in terms of relativistically symmetric and axially symmetric hydrodynamic equations.
Journal Article
Instabilities in close neutron star binaries.
TL;DR: In this paper, a new analysis of instabilities in close neutron star binaries based upon (3+1) dimensional general relativistic numerical hydrodynamics calculations is presented.
References
More filters
MonographDOI
Black Holes, White Dwarfs, and Neutron Stars
TL;DR: In this paper, the soft file of a book collection of black holes white dwarfs and neutron stars can be downloaded and the book can be found on-line in this site.
Book
Solar system dynamics
TL;DR: In this paper, the two-body problem and the restricted three body problem are considered. And the disturbing function is extended to include the spin-orbit coupling and the resonance perturbations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Rotating Black Holes: Locally Nonrotating Frames, Energy Extraction, and Scalar Synchrotron Radiation
Journal ArticleDOI
Multipole expansions of gravitational radiation
TL;DR: In this article, a unified notation for the multipole formalisms for gravitational radiation is presented, which includes scalar, vector, and tensor spherical harmonics used in the general relativity literature, including Regge-Wheeler harmonics, the symmetric, trace-free ("STF") tensors of Sachs and Pirani, the Newman-Penrose spin-weighted harmonics and the Mathews-Zerilli Clebsch-Gordan-coupled harmonics.
Journal ArticleDOI
Black Holes
TL;DR: In this article, the authors review the observational evidence for black holes and briefly discuss some of their properties, and also describe some recent developments involving cosmic censorship and the statistical origin of black hole entropy.