Alladi Ramakrishnan Hall

A numerical investigation of the quark-hadron phase transition in neutron stars

Prashanth Jaikumar

California State University, Long Beach

Neutron stars are compact stars of about a solar mass but
only 10km in size. They have been associated with many high-energy
explosions such as gamma-ray bursts and super-luminous supernovae.
Several works have proposed that the central engine for these
explosions comes from a first-order quark-hadron phase transition that
occurs inside a rotating neutron star. We test this proposal through a
numerical investigation of the propagation and energy release in a
burning front (finite size interface) that converts the star, inside
out, from neutron matter to quark matter. We present new results for
the speed of the burning front, using hydrodynamics and
advective-diffusive effects. We find that the burning front speeds can
be up to a tenth of the speed of light, and that the burning front can
be driven unstable by effects of neutrino cooling of the interface.
This can lead to a detonation that starts as a deflagaration inside
the neutron star, and possibly provide the mechanism for some gamma
ray bursts and also nucleosynthesis. As an aside, we estimate the
gravitational wave signal emitted in the deflagaration stage.
Note: This work is based on PRC 82 062801(R) (2010)