Anomalous hydrodynamics kicks neutron stars

Date

2016

Authors

Kaminski, Matthias
Uhlemann, Christoph F.
Bleicher, Marcus
Schaffner-Bielich, Jürgen

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Physics Letters B

Abstract

Observations show that, at the beginning of their existence, neutron stars are accelerated briskly to velocities of up to a thousand kilometers per second. We argue that this remarkable effect can be explained as a manifestation of quantum anomalies on astrophysical scales. To theoretically describe the early stage in the life of neutron stars we use hydrodynamics as a systematic effective-field-theory framework. Within this framework, anomalies of the Standard Model of particle physics as underlying microscopic theory imply the presence of a particular set of transport terms, whose form is completely fixed by theoretical consistency. The resulting chiral transport effects in proto-neutron stars enhance neutrino emission along the internal magnetic field, and the recoil can explain the order of magnitude of the observed kick velocities.

Description

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Citation

Kaminski, M., Uhlemann, C.F., Bleicher, M. & Schaffner-Bielich, J. (2016). Anomalous hydrodynamics kicks neutron stars. Physics Letters B, 760, 170-174. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2016.06.054