Perturbations of self-gravitating, ellipsoidal superfluid-normal fluid mixtures

Abstract

We study the perturbation modes of rotating superfluid ellipsoidal figures of equilibrium in the framework of the two-fluid superfluid hydrodynamics and Newtonian gravity. Our calculations focus on linear perturbations of background equilibria in which the two fluids move together, the total density is uniform, and the densities of the two components are proportional to one another, with ratios that are independent of position. The motions of the two fluids are coupled by mutual friction, as formulated by Khalatnikov. We show that there are two general classes of modes for small perturbations: one class in which the two fluids move together and the other in which there is relative motion between them. The former are identical to the modes found for a single fluid, except that the rate of viscous dissipation, when computed in the secular (or ``low Reynolds number'') approximation under the assumption of a constant kinematic viscosity, is diminished by a factor $f_N$, the fraction of the total mass in the normal fluid. The relative modes are completely new, and are studied in detail for a range of values for the phenomenological mutual friction coefficients, relative densities of the superfluid and normal components, and, for Roche ellipsoids, binary mass ratios. We find that there are no new secular instabilities connected with the relative motions of the two fluid components. Moreover, although the new modes are subject to viscous dissipation (a consequence of viscosity of the normal matter), they do not emit gravitational radiation at all.