Speaker: Joonas Nättilä , Columbia University, Flatiron Institute
Abstract: Neutron stars are extremely compact stellar remnants with a mass of ~1.5 Msun and a radius of ~12km. They have an upper layer consisting of a plasma atmosphere and a Coulomb-liquid ocean. Like any stratified fluid envelope on a rotating spherical body, the layers will develop complex lateral motions---weather & climate. I will use well-known results from geophysical fluid dynamics to predict what kind of "weather" we can expect on neutron stars. Understanding the spatiotemporal variability of atmospheres and oceans on neutron stars is important for interpreting observations of their X-ray emissions.