Are neutron stars turbulent?  [slides]

Abstract

Instabilities and turbulence in neutron stars have been suggested as the origin of timing irregularities in pulsars such as glitches and timing noise. I will examine the case for turbulence in neutron stars, comparing the conditions in these stars with those in known turbulent astrophysical systems. Particular attention is given to instabilities arising from conditions unique to neutron stars, such as two-stream instabilities driven by the relative rotation between the proton and neutron condensates in the core. We show that magnetic stresses have a stabilizing effect on these instabilities, making them unlikely to be connected with turbulence.