Collective modes in the superfluid inner crust of neutron stars

Abstract

The neutron star inner crust is assumed to be superfluid at relevant temperatures. The contribution of neutron quasiparticles to thermodynamic and transport properties of the crust is therefore strongly suppressed by the pairing gap. Nevertheless, the neutron gas still has low-energy excitations, namely long-wavelength collective modes. We summarize different approaches to describe the collective modes in the crystalline phases of the inner crust and present an improved model for the description of the collective modes in the pasta phases within superfluid hydrodynamics.