Phase Transition in Pulsar Timing
Abstract
Description
A phase transition in the nature of matter in the core of a neutron star, such as quark deconfinement or Bose condensation, can cause the spontaneous spin-up of a solitary millisecond pulsar. The spin-up epoch for our model lasts for $2\times 10^7$ years or 1/50 of the spin-down time (Glendenning, Pei and Weber in Ref. \cite{glen97:a}). The possibility exists also for future measurements on X-ray neutron stars with low-mass companions for mapping out the tell-tale ``backbending'' behavior of the moment of inertia. Properties of phase transitions in substances such as neutron star matter, which have more than one conserved charge, are reviewed.
18 pages, 9 figures, Latex. (Invited Paper, Hirschegg '98, Nuclear Astrophysics, Organizers: M. Buballa, W. Norenberg, J. Wambach and A.\ Wirzba)
18 pages, 9 figures, Latex. (Invited Paper, Hirschegg '98, Nuclear Astrophysics, Organizers: M. Buballa, W. Norenberg, J. Wambach and A.\ Wirzba)