Neutron Stars as Type-I Superconductors

Kirk B. W. Buckley; Max A. Metlitski; Ariel R. Zhitnitsky

doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.151102

← Back to search

Neutron Stars as Type-I Superconductors

Kirk B. W. Buckley, Max A. Metlitski, Ariel R. Zhitnitsky

DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.151102 · Physical Review Letters

T1

Active bibliographic source — not scientific approval

Bibliographic access preserves source history; it does not approve extracted materials or validate reported claims. Review warnings on each occurrence separately.

Abstract

In a recent paper by Link, it was pointed out that the standard picture of the neutron star core composed of a mixture of a neutron superfluid and a proton type-II superconductor is inconsistent with observations of a long period precession in isolated pulsars. In the following we will show that an appropriate treatment of the interacting two-component superfluid (made of neutron and proton Cooper pairs), when the structure of proton vortices is strongly modified, may dramatically change the standard picture, resulting in a type-I superconductor. In this case the magnetic field is expelled from the superconducting regions of the neutron star, leading to the formation of the intermediate state when alternating domains of superconducting matter and normal matter coexist.