Constraints on pulsar masses from the maximum observed glitch

Abstract

Pulsar glitches, sudden jumps in frequency in otherwise steadily spinning down radio pulsars, offer a unique glimpse into the superfluid interior of neutron stars. The exact trigger of these events remains, however, elusive and this has hampered attempts to use glitch observations to constrain fundamental physics. In this paper we propose a new method to measure the mass of glitching pulsars, using observations of the maximum glitch recorded in a star, together with state of the art microphysical models of the pinning interaction between superfluid vortices and ions in the crust. Studying systematically all the presently observed large glitchers, we find an inverse correlation between size of the maximum glitch and the pulsar mass. Our procedure will allow current and future observations of glitching pulsars to constrain not only the physics of glitch models but also the equation of state of dense matter in neutron star interiors.