Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Andrew Steiner: Elucidating the properties of dense matter from starquakes in neutron star crusts

Andrew told us about how oscillations detected in magnetar giant flares may quantitatively constrain nuclear physics, in particular the ubiquitous nuclear symmetry energy. The symmetry energy is one of the largest uncertainties of the crust parameters; this uncertainly leads to uncertainties in the shear modulus and shear speed.

Interestingly, Andrew suggested that the traditional mode assignments to the crust and core modes may be incorrect. If true, this could explain the implied magnetar mass of less than one solar mass: The actual mass could be higher, which would help many at the workshop sleep better.

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