Sinking of a magnetically confined mountain on an accreting neutron star

Abstract

We perform ideal-magnetohydrodynamic axisymmetric simulations of magnetically confined mountains on an accreting neutron star, with masses less than ~0.12 solar masses. We consider two scenarios, in which the mountain sits atop a hard surface or sinks into a soft, fluid base. We find that the ellipticity of the star, due to a mountain grown on a hard surface, approaches ~2e-4 for accreted masses greater than ~1.2e-3 solar masses, and that sinking reduces the ellipticity by between 25% and 60%. The consequences for gravitational radiation from low-mass x-ray binaries are discussed.

13 pages, 12 figures, and 3 tables; accepted for publication in MNRAS