MODELLING SUPERFLUID NEUTRON STARS APPLICATIONS TO PULSAR GLITCHES

In this dissertation I discuss how observations of the maximum glitch occurred in a certain pulsar provides a test for the microscopic physics of neutron star interiors, in particular the pinning forces (a parameter which effectively describes the strength of the vortex-lattice interaction at the mesoscopic scale). Conversely, by fixing the input parameters by taking estimates from recent literature, it is possible to estimate the mass of a glitching pulsar. A proof of concept of this thesis is given by constructing a quantitative model for pulsar rotational dynamics that can consistently encode state of the art models of the pinning force between vortices and ions in the crust, as well as the stratified structure of a neutron star. This point is far from being secondary as most studies on pulsar glitches are based on body-averaged models or differential models that tacitly assume a cylindrical symmetry, not consistent with the spherically layered structure.