Editing Neutron star (section)

===Glitches and starquakes===
[[Image:2004 stellar quake full.jpg|thumb|NASA artist's conception of a "[[Starquake (astrophysics)#Starquake|starquake]]", or "stellar quake"]]
Sometimes a neutron star will undergo a [[glitch (astronomy)|glitch]], a sudden small increase of its rotational speed or spin up.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last1=Antonelli |first1=Marco |title=Astrophysics in the XXI Century with Compact Stars |date=November 2022 |pages=219–281 |last2=Montoli |first2=Alessandro |last3=Pizzochero |first3=Pierre|chapter=Insights into the Physics of Neutron Star Interiors from Pulsar Glitches |doi=10.1142/9789811220944_0007 |arxiv=2301.12769 |isbn=978-981-12-2093-7 }}</ref> Glitches are thought to be the effect of a [[starquake (astrophysics)|starquake]]—as the rotation of the neutron star slows, its shape becomes more spherical. Due to the stiffness of the "neutron" crust, this happens as discrete events when the crust ruptures, creating a starquake similar to earthquakes. After the starquake, the star will have a smaller equatorial radius, and because angular momentum is conserved, its rotational speed has increased.

Starquakes occurring in [[magnetars]], with a resulting glitch, is the leading hypothesis for the gamma-ray sources known as soft gamma repeaters.<ref name="sa"/>

Recent work, however, suggests that a starquake would not release sufficient energy for a neutron star glitch; it has been suggested that glitches may instead be caused by transitions of vortices in the theoretical superfluid core of the neutron star from one metastable energy state to a lower one, thereby releasing energy that appears as an increase in the rotation rate.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/1756 |date=1 January 1998 |title=Pulsars, glitches and superfluids |publisher=Physicsworld.com |first=M. Ali |last=Alpar |access-date=12 January 2009 |archive-date=6 December 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081206090618/http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/1756 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":0" />