A Non-Radial Oscillation Model for Pulsar State Switching

Abstract

Pulsars are unique astrophysical laboratories because of their clock-like timing precision, providing new ways to test general relativity and detect gravitational waves. One impediment to high-precision pulsar timing experiments is timing noise. Recently Lyne et al. (2010) showed that the timing noise in a number of pulsars is due to quasi-periodic fluctuations in the pulsars' spin-down rates and that some of the pulsars have associated changes in pulse profile shapes. Here we show that a non-radial oscillation model based on asteroseismological theory can explain these quasi-periodic fluctuations. Application of this model to neutron stars will increase our knowledge of neutron star emission and neutron star interiors and may improve pulsar timing precision.

13 pages, 2 figures, 1 tables, Accepted for publication in ApJ Letters