Anisotropic crystal structure of magnetized neutron star crust

Abstract

Although the crystallized neutron star crust is responsible for many fascinating observational phenomena, its actual microscopic structure in tremendous gravitational and magnetic fields is not understood. Here we show that in a non-uniform magnetic field, three-dimensional ionic Coulomb crystals comprising the crust may stretch or shrink while their electrostatic pressure becomes anisotropic. The pressure depends non-linearly on the magnitude of the stretch, so that a continuous magnetic field evolution may result in an abrupt crystal elongation or contraction. This may provide a trigger for magnetar activity. A phonon-mode instability is revealed, which sets the limits of magnetic field variation beyond which the crystal is destroyed. These limits sometimes correspond to surprisingly large deformations. It is not known what happens to crust matter subjected to a pressure anisotropy exceeding these limits. We hypothesize that the ion system then possesses a long-range order only in one or two dimensions, i.e. becomes a liquid crystal.