[HEAP] Anti-glitch induced by collision of a solid body with the magnetar 1E 2259+586

http://arxiv.org/abs/1310.3324


Glitches have been frequently observed in neutron stars. They are sudden spin-ups that can be explained as due to large-scale crust-cracking events, or interactions between the interior superfluid component and the outer solid crust. However, an unprecedented anti-glitch was recently reported for the strongly magnetized neutron star 1E 2259+586. This unexpected sudden spin-down strongly challenges previous glitch theories. Here we show that the anti-glitch can be well explained by the collision of a small solid body of negative orbital angular momentum with the neutron star. Our study indicates that a completely different type of glitches as due to collisions should exist and may have already been observed previously. It also hints a new way for studying the capture events by neutron stars: through accurate timing observations of pulsars.

Read this paper on arXiv…

Date added: Tue, 15 Oct 13