Models of rapidly rotating neutron stars: remnants of accretion-induced collapse |
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| Authors: | Yuk Tung Liu Lee Lindblom |
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| Institution: | Theoretical Astrophysics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA |
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| Abstract: | Equilibrium models of differentially rotating nascent neutron stars are constructed, which represent the result of the accretion-induced collapse of rapidly rotating white dwarfs. The models are built in a two-step procedure: (1) a rapidly rotating pre-collapse white dwarf model is constructed; (2) a stationary axisymmetric neutron star having the same total mass and angular momentum distribution as the white dwarf is constructed. The resulting collapsed objects consist of a high-density central core of size roughly 20 km, surrounded by a massive accretion torus extending over 1000 km from the rotation axis. The ratio of the rotational kinetic energy to the gravitational potential energy of these neutron stars ranges from 0.13 to 0.26, suggesting that some of these objects may have a non-axisymmetric dynamical instability that could emit a significant amount of gravitational radiation. |
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| Keywords: | instabilities stars: interiors stars: neutron stars: rotation white dwarfs |
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