New insight into the physical essence of pulsar glitch

Abstract

Based on the oscillation between the B phase and A phase of 3P2 neutron superfluid in neutron stars, we propose a new glitch model for young pulsars. According to our model, the glitch is explained as a repeat phenomena from the quasi period 3P2 neutron superfluid B phase, to A phase, then to B phase (many repeated glitches with quasi-period). With the repeating of the phase transition, the vortex quantum number of 3P2 neutron superfluid vortices is gradually reduced, and the heating rate ε(B) in B phase also gets lower and lower. After a number of glitches, the time intervals between successive glitches will gradually become longer, and the glitch amplitude decreases. When the heating rate ε(B) of an old neutron star becomes lower than the cooling rate of the direct Urca, which can happen in a super-strongmagnetic field, the B phase of the 3P2 neutron superfluid vortices is no longer returned to the A phase state and the phase oscillation of the system is stopped immediately. The slowing glitch phenomenon of some older pulsars is a natural result of our theory, which means that very old pulsars will no longer present the glitch. Our model will be tested in future pulsar glitch observations.