In the expression of the effective enthalpy,
H denotes the local enthalpy given by
with the energy density,
, and pressure,
p, while
A is the baryon number density inside a Wingner-Seitz cell,
is the number of neutrons inside a Wingner-Seitz cell that do not comove with protons in the nuclei,
is the number of neutrons inside a cylindrical-hole or spherical-hole, and
is a parameter characterizing a participant ratio in the oscillations, i.e., how much ratio of nucleons outside the cylindrical-hole or spherical-hole comove with it non-dissipatively. That is, all the nucleons inside a Wingner-Seitz cell contribute to the effective enthalpy with
(maximum enthalpy), while no nucleons outside the cylindrical-hole or spherical-hole do so with
(minimum enthalpy). We note that
in a phase of spherical-hole nuclei is predicted as
at
fm
−3 from the band calculations [
97]. Meanwhile, assuming that
comes only from a part of the dripped neutrons inside a Wingner-Seitz cell,
, the parameter
can control the fraction of neutrons contributing to the oscillations, i.e.,
corresponds to the situation that all the dripped neutrons comove with the protons (maximum enthalpy), while
is that all the dripped neutrons behave as a superfluid and do not contribute to the oscillations (minimum enthalpy).
To determine the frequencies, one has to impose appropriate boundary conditions in the perturbation equation (
6) at the basis of the crust (the boundary between the core and crust) and the surface of the crust (or the boundary between the crust and envelope). Both boundaries are essentially equivalent to the boundary between the elastic and fluid region, where we impose the condition that the traction force vanishes [
60,
95], which reduces to
. On the other hand, at the interface between the elastic regions with different shapes of nuclei, e.g., between the spherical and cylindrical nuclei, we impose a continuous traction condition, i.e.,
should be continuous at such an interface. Then, the problem to solve becomes an eigenvalue problem with respect to the eigenvalue,
. The resultant value of
gives us the frequency,
f, via
for each value of
ℓ. In this review, we use the notation of
for expressing the eigenfrequencies of torsional oscillations with the angular index
ℓ and the nodal number in the eigenfunction (although the notation is different from the usual one, such as
).
5.1. Torsional Oscillations Excited in the Spherical Nuclei
Even though the crust is not only composed of the spherical nuclei as mentioned above, to see the dependence of the frequencies of the torsional oscillations on the EOS parameters and stellar properties, first we consider the torsional oscillations excited in the elastic region composed of only the spherical nuclei. As a first step, we examine the frequencies without neutron superfluidity, i.e.,
(or
). As mentioned in
Section 3, to construct the equilibrium model, we have to select two parameters for EOS, i.e.,
and
L, and two for stellar models,
M and
R. In the left panel of
Figure 4, we show the fundamental frequencies of
torsional oscillations for a neutron star model with
and 12 km, using the EOSs with some parameter sets listed in
Table 1 (see Ref. [
67] for the concrete parameter sets adopted here), as a function of
L. From this figure, one can observe that the frequencies are less sensitive to
. Thus, we will discuss the dependence of the fundamental frequency as a function of
L through the fitting formula by assuming the polynomial form as
where
with
are the adjustable parameters depending on
M and
R (and
), while
is the value of
L normalized by 100 MeV. Using this fitting formula, one can estimate the frequency of
less than
accuracy for a neutron star model with
and 12 km (Table 2 in [
67]). In the left panel of
Figure 4, we also show the expected frequencies with the fitting formula given by Equation (
9) by the thick-solid line.
One may be able to understand the dependence of
on
L as follows. As the value of
L increases, the nuclear symmetry energy conversely decreases at the sub-nuclear density, considering the density dependence of the bulk energy given by Equation (
1). As a result, protons easily turn into neutrons, which leads to the situation that the charge number of nuclei gets smaller. This means that
becomes smaller from Equation (
3). On the other hand, the fundamental frequency of the
ℓ-th torsional oscillations,
, are estimated as
with the shear velocity,
[
101]. Thus, one can expect that
decreases with
L.
Now, assuming the neutron star mass and radius would be in the range of
and 10 km
14 km, which are reasonable assumptions as a neutron star model, the resultant fundamental frequency of the
torsional oscillations is shifted, depending on the stellar models. In the right panel of
Figure 4, we show the expected region of
for such neutron star models as a function of
L. We note that
decreases with
R and
M. So, the lower bound of the shaded region corresponds to the stellar model with
and 14 km. On the other hand, the lowest QPO frequency observed in the SGR 1806-20, i.e., 18 Hz, is also shown in the right panel of
Figure 4. Since the
fundamental torsional oscillations are theoretically the lowest frequency among a lot of eigenfrequencies of the torsional oscillations,
should be equal to or even lower than the observed lowest QPO frequency on the assumption that the magnetar QPOs come from the crustal torsional oscillations. Then, from the right panel of
Figure 4, one can get the constraint on
L as
MeV, if the central object of SGR 1806-20 is a neutron star with
and
km [
65,
67]. Similarly, if the central object is a typical neutron star with
and 10 km,
L is constrained as
MeV.
Next, we take into account neutron superfluidity in the crustal torsional oscillations, i.e.,
. To see how the frequencies depend on
, we calculate
, assuming that
is constant inside the inner crust. We confirm that
for a given neutron star model can be well expressed as a function of
L using Equation (
9) even for
. In
Figure 5, we show the
L dependence of
for a neutron star model with
and 14 km as varying the ratio of
with each 0.2 from 0 to 1 (the solid lines from bottom to top). The tendency of why the frequency increases with
can also be understood with the dependence of frequency on the shear velocity. As mentioned above, the effective enthalpy,
, decreases with
, which leads to the increase of the shear velocity. So, as a result, one can expect that the frequency also increases since
. We note that the neutron star model discussed for the
L dependence of
in
Figure 5 corresponds to the stellar model, which gives the lower boundary of the shaded region in
Figure 4. That is, assuming that the central object in SGR 1806-20 is a neutron star with
and
km, and also assuming that the lowest QPO frequency observed in SGR 1806-20 comes from
, one can get the constraint on
L as
with the lower limit of
, depending on
, where
is determined as the intersection of the
L dependence of
and 18 Hz (dot-dashed line) in
Figure 5, i.e.,
increases with
[
66].
In a realistic stellar model,
should depend on the density. According to the band calculations in [
97], the ratio of
is only of the order of
percent at
, even though the ratio of
is still under debate, e.g., [
98,
99,
100]. The fundamental frequencies determined with this density dependence of
are also shown in
Figure 5 with marks (and the dashed line for their fitting), which are close to the results obtained with
. Anyway, since the frequencies of torsional oscillations strongly depend on the ratio of
, it is quite important to understand the ratio of
in a realistic situation.
In a similar way to the fundamental frequencies of the
torsional oscillations, one can discuss the
L dependence of the
ℓ-th torsional oscillations. Actually, if one systematically examines the frequencies, one can find that
is also well fitted as a function of
L, which weakly depends on
, as
where
with
are also the adjustable parameters depending on
M and
R (and
) [
66]. Using this
L dependence of
, we will discuss the QPO frequencies observed in SGR 1806-20 and 1900+14, even though one should also consider the effect of the existence of pasta (see
Section 5.2 and
Section 5.3, and also [
102]). In
Figure 6, we show the fundamental frequencies of torsional oscillations with specific values of
ℓ for a neutron star model with
and 12 km, adopting the results in [
97] for
. From the left panel one can observe that the 18, 26, 30, and 92.5Hz QPOs in SGR 1806-20 are well identified with
fundamental oscillations if
MeV, while from the right panel one can observe that the 28, 54, and 84 Hz QPOs in SGR 1900+14 are with
fundamental oscillations if
MeV. We note that the other low-lying QPO frequencies discovered later can also be identified with the torsional oscillations with different values of
ℓ in the same framework [
69,
96,
103] (also see
Section 5.2 and
Section 5.3).
Since the neutron star mass and radius in SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 are not constrained, it may be better to consider the stellar models with a typical range of mass and radius. In practice, if the stellar mass and radius are changed in a certain range, the resultant
L dependence of
are shifted up and down in
Figure 6 with the same combination of the
ℓ-th oscillations. As a result, the optimal value of
L, with which the QPOs observed in SGRs are well identified with the torsional oscillations, is also shifted left and right. In the left panel of
Figure 7, the optimal values of
L, with which the QPO frequencies observed in SGR 1806-20 (with filled marks) and in SGR 1900+14 (with open marks) are well identified as shown in
Figure 6, are shown for various neutron star models. From this figure, one can see that
L should be in the range of
MeV for explaining SGR 1806-20 and
MeV for explaining SGR 1900+14, if the central objects of both SGRs are a neutron star with
and 10 km
14 km. Meanwhile, since the value of
L should be universal, i.e., independent of the astronomical events, one has to simultaneously explain both events, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, with the same value of
L. Thus, we get a more stringent constraint on
L, i.e.,
MeV [
67], which are shown in the left panel of
Figure 7 with the shaded region. Furthermore, since the symmetry energy at
,
, is approximately estimated as a function of
L [
78] through
one can constrain
to explain the QPOs observed in the SGRs as
MeV.
On the other hand, considering the constraints on
L obtained from terrestrial experiments whose fiducial value is
MeV [
3,
7,
9], the resultant constraint on
L may be too large, although a larger value of
L has also been reported [
31,
32]. So, if any, it may be better to consider an alternative possible correspondence to explain the QPO frequencies observed in the SGRs with the fundamental torsional oscillations. As an alternative possible correspondence, we find that the 18, 30, and 92.5 Hz QPOs in SGR 1806-20 are identified with the
fundamental torsional oscillations, while the 28, 54, and 84 Hz in SGR 1900+14 are with the
oscillations, as shown in
Figure 8 for a neutron star model with
and 12 km, where the value of
L should be
MeV in SGR 1806-20 and
MeV in 1900+14. We note that the 26 Hz QPO in SGR 1806-20 cannot be identified with this correspondence (see
Section 5.3 for this missing identification). Considering a typical neutron star model with
and 10 km
14 km, one can get the optimal values of
L as shown in the right panel of
Figure 7. To simultaneously explain the QPOs observed in the SGRs, we obtain the constraint on
L as
MeV (shaded region in the right panel), assuming that the central object in the SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 is a neutron star with
and 10 km
14 km [
67]. This constraint on
L additionally gives us the constraint on
as
MeV, using Equation (
11). We note that the fundamental frequencies of
ℓ-th torsional oscillations excited inside the phase of spherical nuclei can be expressed as a function of
ℓ,
L, stellar mass, and radius [
104].
5.2. Torsional Oscillations Excited in the Spherical and Cylindrical Nuclei
Since in this review we simply consider that the shear modulus inside the phase of slablike nuclei is zero, as mentioned in
Section 4, the torsional oscillations in the region composed of spherical and cylindrical nuclei can be excited independently from those in the region composed of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei. That is, torsional oscillations are excited independently in two layers across the phase of slablike (lasagna) nuclei as "a lasagna sandwich" [
69]. In this subsection, we discuss the torsional oscillations excited in the outer layer, i.e., the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei, while those excited in the inner layer, i.e., the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei, will be discussed in the next subsection (
Section 5.3).
Unlike the phase of spherical nuclei, the understanding of the ratio of
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei is poor. So, we simply consider the extreme case, i.e.,
and 1 in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. On the other hand, we adopt the result obtained in [
97] for
in the phase of spherical nuclei, as in the previous subsection. Then, one can determine the frequencies of torsional oscillations by solving an eigenvalue problem.
To see how the frequency of the torsional oscillation changes due to the existence of cylindrical nuclei, in
Figure 9, we show
as a function of
L for a neutron star model with
and 12 km, using the EOSs with some parameter sets listed in
Table 1 (see Ref. [
96] for the concrete parameter sets adopted here), where the left and right panels correspond to the results with
and 1, respectively, and the thick-solid line is the fitting with Equation (
9). For reference, we also show the
L dependence of
excited in the phase of only spherical nuclei discussed in
Section 5.1 with the dashed line. From this figure, one can observe that the modification in
due to the existence of cylindrical nuclei appears only for a neutron star model with a lower value of
L. This is because the phase of cylindrical nuclei as well as the other pasta phases becomes narrower with
L[
78,
79,
80], i.e., one can neglect the existence of cylindrical nuclei in the stellar model with larger
L. In any case, the fundamental torsional oscillations hardly depend on
and one can discuss the
L dependence through the fitting given by Equation (
10).
Using the
L dependence of
with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei, in
Figure 10, we compare the fundamental torsional oscillations with various
ℓ for a neutron star model with
and 12 km to the low-lying QPO frequencies observed in SGR 1806-20 (left panel) and SGR 1900+14 (right panel), where the horizontal dashed and dotted lines denote the observed QPO frequencies and the solid lines denote the
L dependence of
. We note that we focus on only the correspondence of the observed low-lying QPOs except for the 26 Hz QPO in SGR 1806-20 here, because the optimal value of
L becomes larger than 100 MeV to identify all the observed low-frequency QPOs in terms of the crustal torsional oscillations, as discussed in
Section 5.1, which may be inconsistent with the constraint from existing nuclear experiments. We also note that the 57 Hz QPO additionally discovered in [
57] is taken into account this time. From this figure, one sees that the observed QPOs (except for the 26 Hz QPO) in SGR 1806-20 can be identified if
MeV, and those in SGR 1900+14 can be identified if
MeV.
Similarly, one can determine the optimal value of
L to identify the observed QPOs with the same set of the fundamental torsional oscillations shown in
Figure 10 for various neutron star models with
and 1 in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. Assuming that
and 10 km
14 km as a typical neutron star model, the optimal value of
L for identifying the QPO frequencies observed in the SGRs with the same correspondence as shown in
Figure 10, are plotted in
Figure 11 for
in the left panel and
in the right panel. In this figure, the filled marks with solid lines correspond to the resultant values of
L for SGR 1806-20, while the open marks with dashed lines are for SGR 1900+14. Again, since the value of
L should be independent of the astronomical events, one has to simultaneously explain both events, SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14, with a specific value of
L. Thus, we can get the constraint on
L as
MeV for
and
MeV for
, assuming that the central object of SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 is a neutron star with
and 10 km
14 km. These constraints on
L are shown with the shaded region in
Figure 11. Namely, the uncertainty in
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei makes only a little difference in the constraint on
L, where the allowed
L lies in the range of
MeV, even if the uncertainty in
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei is taken into account. This constraint on
L gives us the constraint of
as
MeV, using the correlation between
L and
given by Equation (
11).
On the other hand, since the torsional oscillations are confined inside the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei, we can also discuss the overtone(s) of torsional oscillations. The
n-th overtone frequencies of the
ℓ-th torsional oscillations,
, is theoretically estimated with the crust thickness (or the thickness of elastic region),
, as
[
101]. Meanwhile,
depends on the EOS parameters
L and
mainly through the neutron chemical potential at the crust–core boundary [
81], when the neutron star mass and radius are fixed. Thus, via the identification of the relatively high-frequency QPO observed in SGR 1806–20, i.e., 626.5 Hz, as the 1st overtone of crustal torsional oscillations, one may obtain information about the EOS parameters [
65,
96].
Since
depends on
and
L through
, it is of great use to find a parameter constructed by a combination of
and
L, which can characterize
. To this end, assuming the combination of
with integer numbers
i and
j, we finally find an appropriate combination of
and
L as
In
Figure 12, we show the 1st overtones of
torsional oscillations for a neutron star model with
and 12 km constructed with various EOS parameters, where the thick-solid line denotes the fitting formula for the 1st overtones of the torsional oscillations given by [
75,
96]
where
for
are the adjustable parameters depending on
M,
R, and
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. We will, hereafter, discuss the
dependence of
.
It is well known that the overtone frequencies of torsional oscillations weakly depend on
ℓ, unlike the fundamental oscillations [
101]. As an example, in the left panel, we show the 1st overtones of the
(solid lines) and 10 (dashed lines) torsional oscillations as a function of
for a neutron star models with
,
, and
with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. From this figure, one confirms that
weakly depends on
ℓ, while one also finds that
strongly depends on the stellar models. So, hereafter, in this review, we focus only on
to discuss the
dependence of the overtones. In addition, in the right panel, we show the
dependence of
for the
neutron star models with different radii with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei together with the 626.5 Hz QPO observed in SGR 1806-20. From this figure, one can observe that the optimal values of
are 178.5, 149.7, and 107.1 MeV for
neutron stars of
, 12, and 14 km, respectively, if one identifies the 626.5 Hz QPO with the 1st overtone.
Figure 13.
In the left panel, we show the 1st overtones of the
(solid lines) and 10 (dashed lines) torsional oscillations as a function of
for a neutron star models with
,
, and
with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. In the right panel, the
dependence of the 1st overtone of the
torsional oscillations for
neutron star models with
km (solid line), 12 km (dotted line), and 14 km (dashed line) with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei is compared to the 626.5 Hz QPO observed in SGR 1806-20 (dot-dashed line). Taken from [
96].
Figure 13.
In the left panel, we show the 1st overtones of the
(solid lines) and 10 (dashed lines) torsional oscillations as a function of
for a neutron star models with
,
, and
with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. In the right panel, the
dependence of the 1st overtone of the
torsional oscillations for
neutron star models with
km (solid line), 12 km (dotted line), and 14 km (dashed line) with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei is compared to the 626.5 Hz QPO observed in SGR 1806-20 (dot-dashed line). Taken from [
96].
In a similar way, one can obtain the optimal values of
for various neutron star models. In the left panel of
Figure 14, the resultant optimal values of
are plotted for neutron star models with
and 10 km
14 km for
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. One can observe that for each
R, the optimal
increases with
M. This behavior comes from the fact that
(or
with fixed
R) decreases with the compactness,
[
81], which leads to the increases of
(through
) and that a optimal value of
becomes larger.
Furthermore, we also derive constraint on
through the definision of
given by Equation (
12), i.e.,
, using the optimal values of
for identifying the 626.5 Hz QPO with the 1st overtone frequency shown in the left panel of
Figure 14 and the optimal values of
L for identifying the low-lying QPO frequencies shown in
Figure 11. In the right panel of
Figure 14, such constraints on
are plotted for various neutron star models, where the filled marks with solid lines denote the results for
, while the open marks with dashed lines denote the results for
. In the same panel, we also show the experimental constraint on
, i.e.,
MeV [
4]. Adopting this constraint on
as a typical one, although it may still be model dependent, e.g., [
5], from the right panel of
Figure 14 one can observe that the neutron star models with
for
km and presumably
for
km are favored by the QPOs observed in SGR 1806–20 up to 626.5 Hz (except for the 26 Hz QPO). That is, a central object in SGR 1806–20 would have a relatively low mass and large radius. We note in passing that a neutron star model with still lower mass and smaller radius than that mentioned above might be acceptable from the right panel of
Figure 14, but one has to assume a larger value of
L to construct such a stellar model, which would be presumably inconsistent with the systematic analysis of the mass-radius relation for low-mass neutron stars [
34].
Finally, adopting the resultant constraint on the neutron star model of SGR 1806-20, i.e.,
for
km and
for
km, the constraints on
L shown in
Figure 11 are dramatically improved. Namely, the optimal value of
L should be
MeV for
and
MeV for
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. Therefore, we obtain the constraint on
L as
independently of the uncertainty in
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei, which is consistent with the existing constraint on
L, e.g., [
3,
7,
9]. Using the correlation between
L and
(Equation (
11)), one can estimate the corresponding value of
as
MeV.
5.3. Torsional Oscillations Excited in the Cylindrical-Hole and Spherical-Hole Nuclei
Through
Section 5.1 and
Section 5.2, we discussed that the QPO frequencies observed in SGR 1806-20 and SGR 1900+14 are well identified with the torsional oscillations excited in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei. In particular, by identifying the 626.5 Hz QPO with the 1st overtone of the torsional oscillations, we showed the possibility that a central object in SGR 1806-20 would be a neutron star with a relatively low mass and large radius, and derived the constraint on
L more severe. However, still, we have a missing piece in the identification of the observed QPO frequencies, i.e., the 26 Hz QPO observed in SGR 1806-20. In this subsection, we discuss the possibility of identifying the 26 Hz QPO (and the QPOs additionally discovered in [
58]) in SGR 1806-20 with the torsional oscillations excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei, keeping the consistency with the identification discussed in
Section 5.2.
To determine the frequencies of torsional oscillations excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei, one has to know the value of
in Equation (
8) in the phases of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei, but it is still quite uncertain. So, here we simply consider the extreme cases, i.e.,
for maximum enthalpy and 0 for minimum enthalpy. In
Figure 15, we show the fundamental frequencies of the
torsional oscillations excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei for a neutron star model with
and 12 km, using the EOSs with some parameter sets listed in
Table 1 (see Ref. [
69] for the concrete parameter sets adopted here), where the left and right panels correspond to the results with
and 0 in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei, respectively. From this future, we find that the fundamental frequencies excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei weakly depend on
and the dependence on
L is well fitted with the functional form given by
where
for
are the adjustable parameters depending on
M,
R, and
in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei [
69]. Using this
L dependence of
excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei, we will see the correspondence of the observed QPOs.
In the left panel of
Figure 16, we show the identification of the low-lying QPOs observed in SGR 1806-20 with the fundamental frequencies of torsional oscillations excited in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei and the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei for a neutron star model with
and 13 km. As shown in the left panel of
Figure 10, the 18, 29, 57, 92.5 Hz QPOs can be identified with the fundamental frequencies of the
, 3, 6, 10 torsional oscillations excited in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei. With this correspondence, we find the optimal values of
L as
MeV for
and
MeV for
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. We note that in
Figure 16 the solid lines denote the fundamental frequencies of torsional oscillations excited in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. On the other hand, we also show the fundamental frequencies of
torsional oscillations excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei by the shaded regions, assuming that
. From this figure, one can observe that the 26 Hz QPO, which cannot be identified with the torsional oscillations in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei, can be identified with the
fundamental torsional oscillations excited in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei consistently with the optimal value of
L given by the identification of the other QPOs with the torsional oscillations in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei.
In addition, using this double layer model (lasagna sandwich model), we find that one can identify the QPOs originally discovered in SGR 1806-20 together with the QPOs additionally discovered by a Bayesian procedure, e.g., 51.4, 97.3, and 157 Hz QPOs [
58], as shown in the right panel of
Figure 16. That is, as shown in left panel of
Figure 10, the 18, 29, 57, 92.5, and 150 Hz QPOs can be identified with the fundamental frequencies of the
, and 16 torsional oscillations excited in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei. In a similar way, the 157 Hz QPO can be identified with the
fundamental torsional oscillations in the phase of spherical and cylindrical nuclei, while the 26, 51.4, and 97.3 Hz QPOs are the
, and 15 fundamental torsional oscillations in the phase of cylindrical-hole and spherical-hole nuclei.
5.4. Constraint on a Neutron Star Model for GRB 200415A
So far, we have considered the correspondence between the crustal torsional oscillations and the QPO frequencies observed in giant flares. In addition to these observations, another magnetar flare, GRB 200415A, was also detected in the direction of the NGC253 galaxy, where several high-frequency QPOs with varying significance were found at 836, 1444, 2132, and 4250 Hz [
59]. We note that only high-frequency QPOs have been detected from this event due to the short duration of the observation interval. So, considering the dynamical time of neutron stars, it may be possible to identify these observed QPOs with neutron star oscillations other than the torsional oscillations, such as the fundamental (
f-), gravity (
-), or shear (
-) modes (e.g., see Figure 25). Nevertheless, since these QPOs come from the magnetar flare, here we consider the identification with the crustal torsional oscillations, which is the same framework as discussed in the case of the QPOs observed in giant flares (
Section 5.1–
Section 5.3).
Since the observed QPOs are too high to identify the fundamental torsional oscillations, we consider identifying them with the overtones of torsional oscillations, as in
Section 5.2. Using the fitting of the overtone frequencies given by Equation (
13), we plot the
dependence of
in the left panel of
Figure 17 for a neutron star model with
and 12 km with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei, where the horizontal shaded regions denote the QPOs observed in GRB 200415A. We note that the overtone frequencies weakly depend on the ratio of
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei [
75], in this subsection, we only consider the case with
in the phase of cylindrical nuclei. From this figure, one can observe that the four QPOs can be identified well with the 1st, 2nd, 4th, and 10th overtones of torsional oscillations, which tells us the optimal value of
is 121.7 MeV.
In a similar way, one can determine the optimal values of
for various neutron star models. In practice, the optimal values of
determined with the same combination of the overtones as shown in the left panel of
Figure 17 are plotted in the right panel of
Figure 17. In particular, the neutron star model considered in the left panel is indicated with the arrow. Meanwhile, the value of
is also estimated with the fiducial value of
L and
, i.e.,
MeV with
MeV and
MeV [
2], or with the optimal value of
L obtained in
Section 5.2 to identify the QPO frequencies observed in the giant flares with the torsional oscillations, such as
MeV, with the fiducial value of
, i.e.,
MeV. These estimations of
are also shown in the right panel of
Figure 17 with the shaded region and the enclosed region with the dashed lines. That is, considering these estimations, for example the stellar model with
and 11 km can be excluded. In consequence, we can get the constraint on the neutron star mass and radius as shown in the left panel of
Figure 18, where the shaded region corresponds to the results with
MeV, while the bound region by solid lines is those with
MeV.
One may make the constraint on the mass and radius of the neutron star model for GRB 200415A more severe, if one knows the EOSs (or mass-radius relations) corresponding to the estimations of
. For this purpose, the mass formula for a low-mass neutron star [
34] must be crucial. The low-mass neutron star structures may strongly depend on the nuclear saturation parameters, because the central density for such an object is very low. In fact, the mass and gravitational redshift,
z, defined by
can be well expressed as a function of the stellar central density and a new parameter given by
such as
where
is the central density of the neutron star normalized by the saturation density and
is the value of
normalized by 100 MeV [
34]. We note that these empirical formulae are valid in the range of
. Since
z is a combination of
M and
R, one can plot the mass and radius relation once one selects the value of
.
The values of
and
, which are adopted to make a constraint on the mass and radius of the neutron star shown in the left panel of
Figure 18, are respectively given by
MeV and
with
MeV, which correspond to the value of
as
MeV and
MeV, respectively. Using this range of
, one can estimate the stellar mass and radius, whose central density is less than twice the saturation density, as the right-bottom regions in the right panel of
Figure 18. Furthermore, assuming that the radius of the neutron star whose central density is larger than twice the saturation density would be almost constant as shown with the dashed lines corresponding to
, 12.41, 13.03, and 13.23 km for
, 90.5, 111.5, and 118.5 MeV, we can get the overlap region with the constraint on the neutron star mass and radius to identify the QPOs with the overtones of torsional oscillations shown in the left panel of
Figure 18. In such a way, we can get the neutron star mass and radius constraint for GRB 200415A. The resultant mass and radius constraint is shown in
Figure 19 with a double-parallelogram, together with the other constraints obtained from the astronomical observations and experimental constraints.
Finally, we comment on the alternative identification of the QPOs observed in GRB 200415A with the overtones of torsional oscillations. To obtain the neutron star mass and radius constraint shown in
Figure 19, we identify the lowest QPO observed in GRB 200415A, i.e., 835.9 Hz QPO, with the 1st overtone of the torsional oscillations, but it may be possible to identify it with the 2nd overtone. In the left panel of
Figure 20, we compare the lowest QPO observed in GRB 200415A with the 1st (dotted line) and 2nd (solid line) overtones for a neutron star model with
and 14 km. In this figure, we also show the range of
with the fiducial value of
L and
(shaded region) and that with the optimal value of
L to identify the QPOs observed in the giant flares (the region between the vertical dashed lines). From this figure, one can find that the lowest QPO observed in GRB 200415A cannot be identified with the 2nd overtone at least with this stellar model, consistently with the region of
estimated with the fiducial value of saturation parameters. In practice, one can identify the four QPOs observed in GRB 200415A with the 2nd, 5th, 8th, and 16th overtones, if
MeV, as shown in the right panel of
Figure 20. Still, anyway, it is inconsistent with the range of
with the fiducial value of saturation parameters.