Covariant Newtonian and relativistic dynamics of (magneto)-elastic solid model for neutron star crust (Q818871)

Solving astrophysical problems related to the neutron star crust, it is commonly necessary to go back and forth between relativistic models having the advantage of greater elegance and in principle -- particularly at a global level -- of higher accuracy, and Newtonian models that are more convenient from the point of view of other considerations such as economy in gravitational degrees of freedom, and availability of detailed underlying descriptions at a microscopic level. So, in dependence on the special problem to be solved, both the implementation of the fully relativistic treatment or the implementation of the Newtonian treatment may be more simple and/or more straightforward. To facilitate the transition between these two complementary kinds of description, it is desirable to develop a unified treatment in which both relativistic and Newtonian models are described compatible as much as possible. Thus, the present work develops such a unified model of the dynamics of a perfectly elastic solid model for the application to the outer crust of a neutron star. There particular attention is given to the Noether identities for energy-momentum conservation, using a formulation that is fully covariant, not only in a fully relativistic treatment but also (sacrifying accuracy and elegance for economy of degrees of gravitational freedom) in the technically more complicated case of the Newtonian limit. In the new model, the elastic structure may be also modified by a frozen-in magnetic field, so that also magneto-elastic effects (arising in the limit of infinite electrical conductivity) may be studied. In detail, in the paper, first the geometric essentials (the Milne structure) of a Newtonian space-time structure in a 4d-background with respect to an arbitrary system of local coordinates are recapitulated. Then a corresponding relativistic theory is presented (the low-velocity limit of which gives the Newtonian space-time structure). For a variationally formulated theory in a general relativistic context, the corresponding stress momentum energy tensor is commonly constructed directly by differentiation of the relevant action density with respect to the space-time metric. Thus, next, such a Noetherian procedure is adapted to the technically more complicated Newtonian case. Further, the material projection concept is explained, and the action as well as the stress energy tensor for a simple perfectly elastic solid are introduced in the relativistic case. Then, to obtain the Newtonian limit of the simple elasticity model characterised by the derived stress energy tensor, the material projection concept is applied using a Newtonian action integral. An evolution equation for the stress tensor and the characteristic equation (3d eigenvector equation with the square of the relative propagation speed as eigenvalue, and the covariant velocity gradient discontinuity as eigenvector) are derived, and Faraday-Ampère magnetohydrodynamics are introduced. Finally, to present an application of the here developed treatment, the new model is used to obtain explicit (relativistic and Newtonian) formulae for the propagation speeds of generalised (Alfvén type) magneto-elastic perturbation modes of the medium.