Vortex Avalanches and Collective Motion in Neutron Stars

Abstract We simulate the dynamics of about 600 quantum vortices in a spinning-down cylindrical container using a Gross–Pitaevskii model. For the first time, we find convincing spatial-temporal evidence of avalanching behavior resulting from vortex depinning and collective motion. During a typical avalanche, about 10–20 vortices exit the container in a short period, producing a glitch in the superfluid angular momentum and a localized void in the vorticity. After the glitch, vortices continue to depin and circulate around the vorticity void in a similar manner to that seen in previous point-vortex simulations. We present evidence of collective vortex motion throughout this avalanche process. We also show that the effective Magnus force can be used to predict when and where avalanches will occur. Finally, we comment on the challenge of extrapolating these results to conditions in real neutron stars, which contain many orders of magnitude more vortices.