Serway & Jewett — Angular Momentum: Problem 22

You are working in an observatory, taking data on electromagnetic radiation from neutron stars. You happen to be analyzing results from the neutron star in Example 11.6, verifying that the period of the 10.0-km-radius neutron star is indeed 2.6 s. You go through weeks of data showing the same period. Suddenly, as you analyze the most recent data, you notice that the period has decreased to 2.3 s and remained at that level since that time. You ask your supervisor about this, who becomes excited and says that the neutron star must have undergone a glitch, which is a sudden shrinking of the radius of the star, resulting in a higher angular speed. As she runs to her computer to start writing a paper on the glitch, she calls back to you to calculate the new radius of the planet, assuming it has remained spherical. She is also talking about vortices and a superfluid core, but you don’t understand those words.