中子星故障有一个基本的最小尺寸
Neutron star glitches have a substantial minimum size
摘要：
闪变是一种突然的自旋上升事件，它打断了中子星稳定的自旋下降，被认为是由于中子星中存在超流成分。然而，精确的故障机制及其触发仍然未知。小故障的大小是基本物理模型的关键诊断。虽然理论模型长期以来一直考虑到最大的毛刺，但一直假设最小尺寸低于测量的可检测性极限。在本文中，我们定义了一般的毛刺可检测性限制，并使用它们对29年的螃蟹脉冲星的日常观测，在Jodrell银行天文台进行。我们发现，所有的毛刺都远高于可检测性极限，通过使用自动化方法搜索小事件，我们能够发现完整的毛刺大小分布，没有偏见。与大多数模型的预测相反，该分布呈现出低于~0.05 $μ$ Hz的毛刺数量的快速减少。这个基本上最小的尺寸表明，故障必须涉及至少几十亿个超流体涡旋的运动，并提供了额外的可观察性，这可以极大地帮助识别触发机制。我们的研究还表明，毛刺是明确分开的所有其他旋转不规则性。这支持了这样的想法，即毛刺的起源是不同的定时噪声，其中包括未建模的随机波动的旋转速率的恒星。
英文摘要：
Glitches are sudden spin-up events that punctuate the steady spin down of pulsars and are thought to be due to the presence of a superfluid component within neutron stars. The precise glitch mechanism and its trigger, however, remain unknown. The size of glitches is a key diagnostic for models of the underlying physics. While the largest glitches have long been taken into account by theoretical models, it has always been assumed that the minimum size lay below the detectability limit of the measurements. In this paper we define general glitch detectability limits and use them on 29 years of daily observations of the Crab pulsar, carried out at Jodrell Bank Observatory. We find that all glitches lie well above the detectability limits and by using an automated method to search for small events we are able to uncover the full glitch size distribution, with no biases. Contrary to the prediction of most models, the distribution presents a rapid decrease of the number of glitches below ~0.05 $μ$Hz. This substantial minimum size indicates that a glitch must involve the motion of at least several billion superfluid vortices and provides an extra observable which can greatly help the identification of the trigger mechanism. Our study also shows that glitches are clearly separated from all the other rotation irregularities. This supports the idea that the origin of glitches is different to that of timing noise, which comprises the unmodelled random fluctuations in the rotation rates of pulsars.
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