The tensor virial method and its applications to self-gravitating superfluids

Abstract

This review starts with a discussion of the hierarchy of scales, relevant to the description of superfluids in neutron stars, which motivates a subsequent elementary exposition of the Newtonian superfluid hydrodynamics. Starting from the Euler equations for a superfluid and a normal fluid we apply the tensor virial method to obtain the virial equations of the first, second, and third order and to compute their Eulerian perturbations. Special emphasis is put on the computation of perturbations of the new terms due to mutual gravitational attraction and mutual friction between the two fluids. The oscillation modes of superfluid Maclaurin spheroids are derived from the first and second order perturbed virial equations. We discuss two generic classes of oscillation modes which correspond to the co-moving and relative oscillations of two fluids. These modes decouple if the normal fluid is inviscid. We also discuss the mixing of these modes (when the normal fluid is viscous) and its effect on the dynamical and secular instabilities of the co-moving modes and their damping.