2014/01/01 by Matthias Kaminski, Kaminski, Matthias, Uhlemann, Christoph F. +2 · 1 citation
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Cosmology and Gravitation Theories #FOS: Physical sciences #Geophysics and Gravity Measurements #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #High Energy Physics - Theory (hep-th) #Nuclear Theory (nucl-th) #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
paper · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1410.3833
openalex publication_date 2014/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/11/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/14
Observations show that, at the beginning of their existence, neutron stars are accelerated briskly to velocities of up to 1000 km/s. We discuss possible mechanisms contributing to these kicks in a systematic effective-field-theory framework. Anomalies of the underlying microscopic theory result in chiral transport terms in the hydrodynamic description, and we identify these as explanation for the drastic acceleration. In the presence of vorticity or a magnetic field, the chiral transport effects cause neutrino emission along the respective axes. In typical scenarios, the transport effect due to the magnetic field turns out to be strong enough to explain the kicks. Mixed gauge-gravitational anomalies enter in a distinct way, and we also discuss their implications.