Shear Waves and Giant-Flare Oscillations from Soft Gamma-Ray Repeaters

Recent observations of giant flares from soft gamma-ray repeaters have exhibited multiple ~25-150 Hz oscillations. Frequencies in this range are expected for toroidal shear waves in a neutron star (NS) crust, lending support to Duncan's proposal that such modes may be excited in these events. This motivates a reassessment of how these waves reflect the NS structure and what role the magnetic field plays in setting their frequencies. We calculate the eigenfrequencies and eigenfunctions of toroidal oscillations for a realistic NS crust, including a vertical magnetic field at magnetar strengths (B ~ 1014-1015 G). The lowest radial-order mode has a redshifted frequency of ≈28 Hz[l(l + 1)/6]1/2, with the prefactor depending on the NS's mass and radius and its crust's depth and composition. This mode is independent of the magnetic field for B ≲ 4 × 1015 G, a limit much greater than the inferred dipole magnetic fields for these objects. Although this is a good fit to the observed oscillations, only rather loose constraints can be made for the NSs' properties because all that can be fit is this prefactor (a single parameter). Modes with shorter radial wavelengths are more sensitive to the magnetic field starting at B ~ 2 × 1014 G and have higher frequencies (~600-2000 Hz). The discovery of these modes, coupled with the oscillations observed thus far, would provide a powerful probe to the NS crustal structure.