arXiv subjects

Wolfgang Kastaun

Publications and source records attributed to Wolfgang Kastaun.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

On the saturation amplitude of the f-mode instability

We investigate strong nonlinear damping effects which occur during high amplitude oscillations of neutron stars, and the gravitational waves they produce. For this, we use a general relativistic nonlinear hydrodynamics code in conjunction with a fixed spacetime (Cowling approximation) and a polytropic equation of state (EOS). Gravitational waves are estimated using the quadrupole formula. Our main interest are l=m=2 f modes subject to the CFS (Chandrasekhar, Friedman, Schutz) instability, but we also investigate axisymmetric and quasiradial modes. We study various models to determine the influence of rotation rate and EOS. We find that axisymmetric oscillations at high amplitudes are predominantly damped by shock formation, while the nonaxisymmetric f modes are mainly damped by wave breaking and, for rapidly rotating models, coupling to nonaxisymmetric inertial modes. From the observed nonlinear damping, we derive upper limits for the saturation amplitude of CFS-unstable f modes. Finally, we estimate that the corresponding gravitational waves for an oscillation amplitude at the upper limit should be detectable with the advanced LIGO and VIRGO interferometers at distances above 10 MPc. This strongly depends on the stellar model, in particular on the mode frequency.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2011

Nonlinear Decay of r modes in Rapidly Rotating Neutron Stars

We investigate the dynamics of r modes at amplitudes in the nonlinear regime for rapidly but uniformly rotating neutron stars with a polytropic equation of state. For this, we perform three-dimensional relativistic hydrodynamical simulations, making the simplifying assumption of a fixed spacetime. We find that for initial dimensionless amplitudes around three, r modes decay on timescales around ten oscillation periods, while at amplitudes of order unity, they are stable over the evolution timescale. Together with the decay, a strong differential rotation develops, conserving the total angular momentum, with angular velocities in the range 0.5..1.2 of the initial one. By comparing two models, we found that increasing rotation slows down the r-mode decay. We present r-mode eigenfunctions and frequencies, and compare them to known analytic results for slowly rotating Newtonian stars. As a diagnostic tool, we discuss conserved energy and angular momentum for the case of a fixed axisymmetric background metric and introduce a measure for the energy of non-axisymmetric fluid oscillation modes.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2008

Inertial modes of rigidly rotating neutron stars in Cowling approximation

In this article, we investigate inertial modes of rigidly rotating neutron stars, i.e. modes for which the Coriolis force is dominant. This is done using the assumption of a fixed spacetime (Cowling approximation). We present frequencies and eigenfunctions for a sequence of stars with a polytropic equation of state, covering a broad range of rotation rates. The modes were obtained with a nonlinear general relativistic hydrodynamic evolution code. We further show that the eigenequations for the oscillation modes can be written in a particularly simple form for the case of arbitrary fast, but rigid rotation. Using these equations, we investigate some general characteristics of inertial modes, which are then compared to the numerically obtained eigenfunctions. In particular, we derive a rough analytical estimate for the frequency as a function of the number of nodes of the eigenfunction, and find that a similar empirical relation matches the numerical results with unexpected accuracy. We investigate the slow rotation limit of the eigenequations, obtaining two different sets of equations describing pressure and inertial modes. For the numerical computations we only considered axisymmetric modes, while the analytic part also covers nonaxisymmetric modes. The eigenfunctions suggest that the classification of inertial modes by the quantum numbers of the leading term of a spherical harmonic decomposition is artificial in the sense that the largest term is not strongly dominant, even in the slow rotation limit. The reason for the different structure of pressure and inertial modes is that the Coriolis force remains important in the slow rotation limit only for inertial modes. Accordingly, the scalar eigenequation we obtain in that limit is spherically symmetric for pressure modes, but not for inertial modes.

astro-ph↗