Subgrid modelling of MRI-driven turbulence in differentially rotating neutron stars

ABSTRACT Following a binary neutron star (BNS) merger, the transient remnant is often a fast spinning, differentially rotating, magnetized hypermassive neutron star (HMNS). This object is prone to the magnetorotational instability (MRI) which drives magnetohydrodynamic turbulence that significantly influences the HMNS global dynamics. A key consequence of turbulence is the outward transport of angular momentum which impacts the remnant’s stability and lifetime. Most numerical simulations of BNS mergers are unable to resolve the MRI due to its inherently small wavelength. To overcome this limitation, subgrid models have been proposed to capture the effects of unresolved small-scale physics in terms of large-scale quantities. We present the first implementation of our MHD-Instability-Induced Turbulence (MInIT) model in global Newtonian simulations of MRI-sensitive, differentially rotating, magnetized neutron stars. Here, we show that by adding the corresponding turbulent stress tensors to the momentum equation, MInIT successfully reproduces the angular momentum transport in neutron stars driven by small-scale turbulence.