2006/12/23 by Anna L. Watts, Tod E. Strohmayer · 5 citations
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Physics and Astronomy · #Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Seismic Waves and Analysis #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1016/j.asr.2006.12.021
published as Adv.SpaceRes.40:1446-1452,2007 · Proceedings of the 2006 Beijing COSPAR assembly, to appear in Advances in Space Research. Corrected minor error in gravitational wave search section
openalex publication_date 2006/12/23 · arxiv created 2007/01/10 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
The high frequency oscillations discovered in the tails of giant flares from two magnetars are thought to be the first direct detections of seismic vibrations from neutron stars. The possibility of starquakes associated with the giant flares triggering global vibrations opens up the prospect of using seismology to study the interior structure and composition of neutron stars. This is a major breakthrough in the study of the nature of matter under conditions of extreme pressure. In this paper we provide an up to date summary of the observations and the theoretical framework, including a brief discussion of gravitational wave searches for the QPOs. We summarize the status of alternative non-seismic mechanisms, and give a critique of a recent paper by Levin that argued against seismic vibrations as a viable mechanism. We conclude with an overview of current results using the seismological technique that constrain parameters such as the equation of state and crust structure.