MNRAS 479, 4207–4215 (2018) doi:10.1093/mnras/sty1725 Advance Access publication 2018 June 29 Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/479/3/4207/5046729 by Southampton Oceanography Centre National Oceanographic Library user on 13 September 2018 Heat conduction in rotating relativistic stars
S. K. Lander1‹ and N. Andersson2 1Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Centre, Polish Academy of Sciences, Bartycka 18, PL-00-716 Warsaw, Poland 2Mathematical Sciences and STAG Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
Accepted 2018 June 26. Received 2018 June 20; in original form 2018 March 30
ABSTRACT In the standard form of the relativistic heat equation used in astrophysics, information propa- gates instantaneously, rather than being limited by the speed of light as demanded by relativity. We show how this equation none the less follows from a more general, causal theory of heat propagation in which the entropy plays the role of a fluid. In deriving this result, however, we see that it is necessary to make some assumptions which are not universally valid: the dynamical time-scales of the process must be long compared with the explicitly causal physics of the theory, the heat flow must be sufficiently steady, and the space–time static. Generalizing the heat equation (e.g. restoring causality) would thus entail retaining some of the terms we neglected. As a first extension, we derive the heat equation for the space–time associated with a slowly-rotating star or black hole, showing that it only differs from the static result by an additional advection term due to the rotation, and as a consequence demonstrate that a hotspot on a neutron star will be seen to be modulated at the rotation frequency by a distant observer. Key words: accretion, accretion discs – conduction – gravitation – stars:- neutron – stars: rotation.
of entropy is important, or in situations where the space–time is 1 INTRODUCTION highly dynamic – like the merger of compact objects. In its full Treating heat propagation in general relativity (GR) is a necessary form it is, however, likely to be too computationally complex for ingredient for the quantitative modelling of compact objects. It be- many practical purposes. comes important during the collapse of a massive star into either a Here we show how the usual form of the relativistic heat equation, neutron star or black hole (Misner & Sharp 1964; Govender, Ma- for a spherical space–time, may be recovered from the multifluid haraj & Maartens 1998; Woosley, Heger & Weaver 2002; Sekiguchi framework in a natural way. Along the way we show that it is 2010). It is needed to understand neutron-star cooling from birth, necessary to make a few assumptions – probably safe ones for through the rapid proto-neutron-star phase (Burrows & Lattimer secular processes in a neutron-star or black hole environment, but 1986) to the slower, secular evolution of mature neutron stars (Van not necessarily in every astrophysical situation. This therefore gives Riper 1991; Aguilera, Pons & Miralles 2008). It is also important a diagnostic of when the familiar relativistic heat equation is not in modelling short-time-scale cooling following outbursts from ac- applicable: if any of these terms is not negligible. Having established creting neutron stars (Cumming et al. 2017), for accretion physics the non-rotating result, we generalize our approach to find the heat around black holes (Yuan & Narayan 2014; Ressler et al. 2015), equation governing a slowly-rotating star, keeping the terms of and in the very late stages of a binary neutron-star inspiral (Shibata, linear order in the rotation rate (which include frame dragging). We Taniguchi & Uryu 2005). drop second-order rotational terms (which cause the space–time to The standard relativistic heat equation is acausal, predicting that deviate from sphericity), but note that these have been explored information propagates instantaneously, and thus violating a basic in the context of neutron-star cooling by Miralles, Van Riper & tenet of relativity that nothing can travel faster than light. It is now Lattimer (1993) and Negreiros, Schramm & Weber (2017). well established that causality can be restored in a natural way, by This paper is aimed at an astrophysics audience, and so is intended treating entropy as a fluid whose dynamics couple to those of the to assume no specialist knowledge of the reader. For this reason, medium (e.g. the various fluid species of a neutron star) (Lopez- we begin with a brief review of the theory of relativistic thermal Monsalvo & Andersson 2011). Relativistic thermal dynamics is dynamics and the foliation of space–time for numerical simulations, naturally expressed in this multifluid framework, and can be applied in order to make our discussion self-contained. We then derive, in in problems on short time-scales where the finite-speed propagation turn, Fourier’s law and the heat equation; in each case beginning with the non-rotating result and then exploring the effect of slow rotation. We conclude with a discussion of the rotational modulation of a neutron-star hotspot seen by a distant observer. E-mail: [email protected]