Deformed crystals and torsional oscillations of neutron star crust

Abstract

We study breaking stress of deformed Coulomb crystals in a neutron star crust, taking into account electron plasma screening of ion-ion interaction; calculated breaking stress is fitted as a function of electron screening parameter. We apply the results for analyzing torsional oscillation modes in the crust of a non-magnetic star. We present exact analytic expression for the fundamental frequencies of such oscillations and show that the frequencies of all torsional oscillations are insensitive to the presence of the outer neutron star crust. The results can be useful in theoretical modeling of processes involving deformed Coulomb crystals in the crust of neutron stars, such as magnetic field evolution, torsional crustal or thermo-elastic quasi-periodic oscillations of flaring soft gamma-ray repeaters, pulsar glitches. The applicability of the results to soft gamma-ray repeaters is discussed.