# The Possible Role of R-modes in Post-glitch Relaxation of Crab

## I Introduction

Many studies of the (nonradial) oscillation of neutron stars concern the question of stability of the various modes realised in these stars. The so-called CFS nonaxisymmetric instability, driven by the emission of gravitational radiation, accompanies a very rapid spinning down of a neutron star, at spin frequencies larger than a certain critical frequency. Determination of such critical frequencies for various modes and its observational implications has been addressed by many authors (eg. Lindblom 1995). Also, for the stable phase when the star rotates slower than the associated critical frequency, possible observational manifestations of the various modes (including those which arise from MHD, superconductor, and superfluid effects) have been investigated through a determination of the pulsation frequencies and the damping times due to the different dissipation mechanisms (eg. Van Horn 1980; McDermott, Van Horn & Hansen 1988; Mendell 1991; Ipser & Lindblom 1991). A recently discovered curious feature of the so-called r-modes is their generically unstable nature (Andersson 1998); i.e. the corresponding frequency for the onset of CFS-instability equals zero, for some of these modes. Nevertheless, a nonzero critical frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{c}`$ is still defined, in this case too, based on a comparison between the “growth” time of the mode (driven by gravitational radiation) and its “damping” time due to the viscosity. For $`\mathrm{\Omega }>\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{c}`$, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is the angular frequency of the star, the unstable mode of oscillation grows in amplitude and a significant decrease in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is predicted, also due to the proportionality of the amplitude of gravitational waves with the amplitude of the pulsation. However, when $`\mathrm{\Omega }<\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{c}`$ the viscosity-driven damping is more efficient than the growth, which is still driven by the emission of the gravity waves. Much attention has again been paid to a determination of the relevant $`\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{c}`$ and the observational implications of the unstable phase in the case of r-modes (Andersson, Kokkotas & Stergioulas 1998; Madsen 1998; Levin 1998).

We are, however, concerned here with the consequences of r-mode oscillation in neutron stars during their “stable” phase when $`\mathrm{\Omega }<\mathrm{\Omega }_\mathrm{c}`$. This is indeed expected to be the relevant phase for all presently known pulsars (Andersson, Kokkotas & Schutz 1998). In particular, we will assume that r-modes, originally absent in a pulsar, are excited instantaneously at the event of a glitch which is observable as a sudden spin-up of the star. The excited r-modes, which will be subsequently damped effectively by the viscous effects, would nevertheless result in certain amount of the angular momentum to be taken away from the star by the gravitational waves. The total loss of angular momentum until the modes are damped out is computed, for assumed initial amplitudes of the excited r-modes. The resulting decrease in the rotation frequency of the star is compared with the (unrelaxed part of the) increase caused by the glitch. The predicted effect is seen to be negligible in all pulsars, except in the case of Crab which has also shown a corresponding unique observational behavior, as will be discussed. Normal modes of oscillation, including the r-modes, in a neutron star might be excited at a glitch, which is observed as a sudden rise of the spin frequency in radio pulsars (see, eg., Lyne 1995). The excitation could be a result of the “shaking” of the star due to a sudden transfer of angular momentum or a sudden variation in the strength of the rotational coupling, between its various components, or due to a sudden change of its moment of inertia accompanying structural changes. All these effects are commonly considered as possibilities which might occur at a glitch (eg. Blandford 1992). It is further noted that the special role attributed here to the r-modes during a post-glitch relaxation has not to do with their distinctive unstable property, as was indicated earlier. The other (say, p-, f-, g-) modes of oscillation in a neutron star could have, in principle, played the same role as well. The distinction lies, however, in the associated damping times. The damping time for the r-modes (in the case of Crab pulsar) is comparable to that of the observed post-glitch relaxation. In contrast, the damping time for the other modes is either too short or too long by many orders of magnitudes (eg., McDermott et al 1984, Kokkotas and Schmidt 1999). Hence the total loss of angular momentum due to gravitational radiation by the excited modes, during intervals between successive glitches in, say, Crab Pulsar turns out to be negligible, for all the other modes except for the r-modes (see Fig. 1 below). 

## II The Predicted Effect

In order to estimate the effect of the r-mode instability, in a “stable” neutron star, on its post-glitch relaxation, we have used the model described by Owen et. al. (1998). The total angular momentum of a star is parameterized in terms of the two degrees of freedom of the system. One, is the uniformly rotating equilibrium state which is represented by its angular velocity $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$. The other, is the excited r-mode that is parameterized by its magnitude $`\alpha `$ which is bound to an upper limiting value of $`\alpha =1`$, in the linear approximation regime treated in the model. Thus, the total angular momentum $`J`$ of the star is written as a function of the two parameters $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ and $`\alpha `$:

$$J=I_{\mathrm{eq}}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}+J_c,$$
(1)   
where $`I_{\mathrm{eq}}=\stackrel{~}{I}MR^2`$ is the moment of inertia of the equilibrium state, and $`J_c=\frac{3}{2}\stackrel{~}{J}\alpha ^2\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}MR^2`$ is the canonical angular momentum of the $`l=2`$ r-mode, which is negative in the rotating frame of the equilibrium star. The dimensionless constants $`\stackrel{~}{I}`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{J}`$ depend on the detailed structure of the star, and for the adopted $`n=1`$ polytropic model considered have values $`\stackrel{~}{I}=0.261`$ and $`\stackrel{~}{J}=0.01635`$. Also $`R=12.54`$ km and $`M=1.4M_{}`$ are the assumed radius and mass of the star, for the same polytropic model.

Eq. 1 above implies that an assumed instantaneous excitation of r-modes at a glitch would cause a sudden increase in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$. For definiteness, we define the “real” observable rotation frequency $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ of the star as $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\frac{J}{I}`$, where $`I`$ is the moment of inertia of the real star. The two are equal, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$, in the absence of the r-modes, ie. before the excitation of the modes at a glitch and after the modes are damped out. If there were no loss of angular momentum (by gravitational radiation) accompanying the post-glitch damping (by viscosity) of the modes $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ would recover its extrapolated pre-glitch value; ie. its initial rise would be compensated exactly. However due to the net loss of angular momentum by the star, the post-glitch decrease of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ overshoots its initial rise. The negative offset between the values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ before the excitation of the modes and after they are damped out is the quantity of interest for our discussion. The question of whether the instantaneous rise in the value of $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ at a glitch, due to the excitation of the r-modes, is observable or not is a separate problem, and its resolution would have no consequence for the net loss of angular momentum from the star which is the relevant quantity here. It is noted that the distinction between $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$, in the presence of modes, is quantitatively negligible, in all cases of interest, and is usually disregarded. Also, one might dismiss an increase in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ as implied by Eq. 1 to be observable as a spin-up of the star since for an inertial outside observer the r-modes rotate in the prograde direction and their excitation should result, if at all, in a spin-down of the star. Moreover, an excitation of the r-modes should not result, by itself, in any real change of the rotation frequency of the star at all. Because one could not distinguish two physically separate parts of the stellar material such that the two components of angular momentum in Eq. 1 may be assigned to the two parts separately.

The time evolution of the quantities $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ may be determineded from the coupled equations (Owen et. al. 1998):

$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}}{\mathrm{d}t}}={\displaystyle \frac{2\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}}{\tau _\mathrm{v}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha ^2Q}{1+\alpha ^2Q}},`$ (2a)   
$`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{d}\alpha }{\mathrm{d}t}}={\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}}}{\displaystyle \frac{\alpha }{\tau _\mathrm{v}}}{\displaystyle \frac{1\alpha ^2Q}{1+\alpha ^2Q}},`$ (2b)   
where $`Q=\frac{3}{2}\frac{\stackrel{~}{J}}{\stackrel{~}{I}}=0.094`$, for the adopted equilibrium model of the star. The two timescales $`\tau _\mathrm{v}(>0)`$ and $`\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}(<0)`$ are the viscous damping and gravitational growth timescales, respectively. The viscous time has two contributions from the shear and bulk viscosities with corresponding timescales $`\tau _{\mathrm{sv}}`$ and $`\tau _{\mathrm{bv}}`$, respectively. The overall “damping” timescale $`\tau `$ for the mode, which is a measure of the period over which the excited mode will persist, is defined as

$$\frac{1}{\tau }=\frac{1}{\tau _\mathrm{v}}+\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}}=\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{sv}}}+\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{bv}}}+\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}}$$
(3)   
Following Owen et. al. (1998) we use $`\tau _{\mathrm{sv}}=2.52\times 10^8(\mathrm{s})T_9^2`$, $`\tau _{\mathrm{bv}}=4.92\times 10^{10}(\mathrm{s})T_9^6\mathrm{\Omega }_3^2`$, and $`\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}=1.15\times 10^6(\mathrm{s})\mathrm{\Omega }_3^6`$, where $`T_9`$ is the temperature, $`T`$, in units of $`10^9`$ K, and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_3`$ is in units of $`10^3\mathrm{rad}\mathrm{s}^1`$. The above expression for $`\tau `$ which we have used for our following calculations does not however include the role of superfluid mutual friction in damping out the oscillations. We have further taken into account that effect by including also a damping time $`\tau _{\mathrm{mf}}=4.28\times 10^8\mathrm{\Omega }_3^5`$ sec, due to the mutual friction (Lindblom and Mendell 1999) in the calculation of $`\tau `$. The effect of the mutual friction is nevertheless seen to be negligible and the computed curves shown below remain almost the same even when the effect due to the mutual friction is included.

By integrating Eqs 2, numerically, for a given initial value of $`\alpha `$, one may therefore follow the time evolution of $`\alpha `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ which together with Eq. 1 determine the time evolution of the total angular momentum, $`J`$, and hence the time evolution of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. Fig. 1 shows the computed time evolution for the absolute value of the resulting (negative) fractional change $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ in the spin frequency (Fig. 1a) and also the change $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}}{\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}}`$ in the spin-down rate of the star (Fig. 1b), starting at the glitch epoch which corresponds to time $`t=0`$. The results in Fig. 1 are for a choice of an initial value of $`\alpha _0=0.04`$, and for the assumed values of $`T`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ corresponding to the Crab and Vela pulsars, as indicated. Fig. 1a shows that for the same amplitude of the r-modes assumed to be excited at a glitch the resulting loss of angular momentum through gravitational radiation would be much larger in Crab than in Vela, ie. by more than 3 orders of magnitudes. (Note that the curve for Vela in Fig. 1a represents the results after being multiplied by a factor of $`10^3`$.) Furthermore, for the adopted choice of parameter values, the magnitude of the corresponding decrease in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ for the Crab, is $`|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}|10^7`$ (Fig. 1a). The observational consequence of such an effect would nevertheless be closely similar to what has been already observed during the post-glitch relaxations of, only, the Crab pulsar.

Before proceeding further with Crab, we note that the post-glitch effects of excitation of r-modes would however have not much observational consequences for the Vela, and even more so for the older pulsars, which are colder and rotate more slowly. This has two, not unrelated, reasons: in the older pulsars r-modes a) are damped out faster (ie. have smaller values of $`\tau `$), and b) result in less gravitational radiation. The dependence of $`\tau `$ on the stellar interior temperature is shown in Fig. 2a. For the colder, i.e. older, neutron stars the r-modes are expected to die out very fast. The damping timescale for a pulsar with a period $`P1\mathrm{s}`$, being colder than $`10^8`$ K, could be as short as a few hours (Fig. 2a), and r-modes would have been died out at times longer than that after a glitch. For the hot Crab pulsar, on the other hand, r-modes are expected to persist for 2-3 years after they are excited, say, at a glitch. The value of $`\tau `$ decreases for older pulsars due to both their longer periods as well as lower temperatures, but the effect due to the latter dominates by many orders of magnitudes, for the standard cooling curves of neutron stars (Urpin et. al. 1993). The second reason, ie. the loss of angular momentum being negligible in older pulsars, was already demonstrated in Fig. 1a, by a comparison between Crab and Vela pulsars. We have verified it also for the case of pulsars older than Vela. It may be also demonstrated analytically from Eqs 2, in the limit of $`\alpha ^2Q<<1`$. The initial increase in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ due to excitation of r-modes with a given initial amplitude $`\alpha _0`$ is seen from Eq. 1 to be $`|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}}{\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}}|_0=\alpha _0^2Q`$. The subsequent damping of the modes result in secular decrease in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$, and the total decrease at large $`t\mathrm{}`$ would be $`|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}}{\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}}|_{\mathrm{}}\frac{\tau }{\tau _\mathrm{v}}\alpha _0^2Q`$, which is true for $`|\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}|<<\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$. Note that in the absence of gravitational radiation losses (ie. $`\frac{1}{\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}}=0;\tau =\tau _\mathrm{v}`$) the total decrease would be the same as the initial increase, which is expected for the role of viscous damping alone. The difference between these two changes (total decrease minus initial increase) in $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{eq}}`$ would correspond to the total loss of angular momentum from the star, hence to the net decrease in its observable rotation frequency, ie.

$$|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}|_{\mathrm{}}=\frac{\tau _\mathrm{v}}{|\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}|}\alpha _0^2Q$$
(4)   
which is valid in the limit of $`\frac{\tau _\mathrm{v}}{|\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}|}<<1`$. Fig. 2b shows the dependence of the quantity $`\frac{\tau _\mathrm{v}}{|\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}|}`$ on the stellar rotation frequency, and also on its internal temperature. While for the Crab $`\frac{\tau _\mathrm{v}}{|\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}|}10^3`$, however its value is much less for the older pulsars, due to both their lower $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as well as lower $`T`$ values. The dependence on the temperature is however seen to be much less than that on the rotation frequency, in contrast to the dominant role of the temperature in determining the value of the total damping time $`\tau `$, as indicated above. As is seen in Fig. 2b, for the Vela $`\frac{\tau _\mathrm{v}}{|\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}|}<10^7`$, which means a maximum predicted value of $`|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}|_{\mathrm{}}<10^8`$, even for the large values of $`\alpha _01`$. This has to be contrasted with the glitch induced values of $`|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}|10^6`$ in Vela, which shows the insignificance of the role of r-modes in its post-glitch behaviour.

## III The Crab

The observed post-glitch relaxation of the Crab pulsar has been unique in that the rotation frequency of the pulsar is seen to decrease to values $`less`$ than its pre-glitch extrapolated values (Lyne et. al. 1993). So far, two mechanisms have been suggested to account for the observed excess loss of angular momentum during post-glitch relaxations of the Crab. The first mechanism, in the context of the vortex creep theory of Alpar et. al. (1984, 1996), invokes generation, at a glitch, of a so called “capacitor” region within the pinned superfluid in the crust of a neutron star, resulting in a permanent decoupling of that part of the superfluid. Nevertheless, this suggestion has been disqualified (Lyne et. al. 1993) since the moment of inertia required to have been decoupled permanently in such regions during the past history of the pulsar is found to be much more than that permitted for all of the superfluid component in the crust of a neutron star. In another attempt, Link et. al. (1992) have attributed the excess loss of angular momentum to an increase in the electromagnetic braking torque of the star, as a consequence of a sudden increase, at the glitch, in the angle between its magnetic and rotation axes. As they point out, such an explanation is left to future observational verification since it should also accompany other observable changes in the pulsar emission, which have not been detected, so far, in any of the resolved glitches in various pulsars. Moreover, the suggestion may be questioned also on the account of its long-term consequences for pulsars, in general. Namely, the inclination angle would be expected to show a correlation with the pulsar age, being larger in the older pulsars which have undergone more glitches. No such correlation has been deduced from the existing observational data. Also, and even more seriously, the assumption that the braking torque depends on the inclination angle is in sharp contradiction with the common understanding of pulsars spin-down process. The currently inferred magnetic field strengths of all radio pulsars are in fact based on the opposite assumption, namely that the torque is independent of the inclination angle. The well-known theoretical justification for this, following Goldreich & Julian (1969), is that the torque is caused by the combined effects of the magnetic dipole radiation and the emission of relativistic particles, which compensate each other for the various angles of inclination (see, eg., Manchester & Taylor 1977; Srinivaran 1989).

The excitation of r-modes at a glitch and the resulting emission of gravitational waves could, however, account for the required “sink” of angular momentum in order to explain the peculiar post-glitch relaxation behavior of the Crab pulsar. As is shown in Fig. 1, for values of $`\alpha _00.04`$ the predicted time evolution of $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ and $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}}{\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}}`$ during the 3–5 years of the inter-glitch intervals in Crab, might explain the observations. That is, the predicted total change in the rotation frequency of the star, $`|\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}|`$, is much larger than the corresponding jump $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}10^8`$ at the glitch, which explains why the post-glitch values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ should fall below that expected from an extrapolation of its pre-glitch behavior. Also, the predicted values of $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}}{\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}}10^4`$, after a year or so (Fig. 1b), are in good agreement with the observed persistent shift in the spin-down rate of the Crab (Lyne et. al. 1995). The predicted increase in the spin-down rate would be however diminished as the excited modes at a glitch are damped out, leaving a permanent negative offset in the spin frequency. Hence the above so-called persistent shift in the spin-down rate of the Crab may be explained in terms of the effect of r-modes, as long as it persists during the inter-glitch intervals of 2-3 years. It may be noted that a permanent persistent shift in the spin-down rate at a glitch may be caused by a sudden decrease in the moment of inertia of the star. However this effect could not, by itself, result in the observed negative offset in the spin frequency, at the same time.

The same mechanism would be expected to be operative during the post-glitch relaxation in the other colder and slower pulsars, as well. However, for the similar values of $`\alpha _0`$, ie. the same initial amplitude of the excited modes, the effect is not expected to become “visible” in the older pulsars. Particularly, for the Vela its initial jump in frequency at a glitch, $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}10^6`$, is seen from Fig. 1a to be much larger (ie. by some four orders of magnitudes) than that of the above effect due to the r-modes. In other words, while the predicted loss in the stellar angular momentum due to the excitation of r-modes result in a negative $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ which, in the case of Crab, overshoots the initial positive jump at a glitch, however for the Vela and older pulsars it comprises only a negligible fraction of the positive glitch-induced jump. A more detailed study should, however, take into account the added complications due to internal relaxation of various components of the star, which is highly model dependent. The observed initial rise in $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ need not be totally compensated for by the losses due to r-modes which we have discussed, since part of it could be relaxed internally (by a transfer of angular momentum between the “crust” and other components, and/or temporary changes in the effective moment of inertia of the star) even in the absence of any real sink for the angular momentum of the star. Such considerations would not only leave the above conclusions valid but also allow for even smaller values of the initial amplitude of the excited modes, compared to our presently adopted value of $`\alpha _00.04`$. The suggested effect of the r-modes in the post-glitch relaxation of pulsars should be understood as one operating in addition to that of the internal relaxation which is commonly invoked. While the latter could account only for a relaxation back to (or higher than) the extrapolated pre-glitch values of the spin frequency, the additional new effect due to the r-modes may explain the excess spin-down to the lower values, as is observed in the Crab pulsar.

It is further noted that the above estimates are for an adopted value of $`Q=9.4\times 10^2`$, which corresponds to the particular choice of the polytropic model star. Differences in the structure among pulsars, in particular between Crab and Vela, which have also been invoked in the past (see, eg., Takatsuka & Tamagaki 1989), could be further invoked to find a better agreement with the data for the above effect due to r-modes as well. Also, the initial amplitude of the excited modes need not be the same in all pulsars. It is reasonable to assume that in a hotter and faster rotating neutron star, as for the Crab, larger initial amplitudes, ie. larger values of $`\alpha _0`$, are realised than in the colder–slower ones.

The quantity $`\alpha _0`$ is however a free parameter in our calculations for which we have chosen a value $`\alpha _00.04`$ that result in an appreciable loss of angular momentum for the Crab pulsar. Nevertheless, for the same choice of the value of $`\alpha _0`$ the effect of r-modes would be different between the Crab and the other pulsars, in agreement with the observations. The associated energy of the excited r-modes, in the rotating frame, is $`\stackrel{~}{E}=\frac{1}{2}\alpha _0^2\stackrel{~}{J}\mathrm{\Omega }^2MR^2`$, which result in $`\frac{\stackrel{~}{E}}{E_{\mathrm{rot}}}10^4`$ for a value of $`\alpha _00.04`$, where $`E_{\mathrm{rot}}=\frac{I\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{2}`$ is the rotational energy of the star. In contrast, for the energy $`\mathrm{\Delta }EI\mathrm{\Omega }\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }`$ released at a glitch, associated with a glitch of a change $`\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }`$ in the rotation frequency, $`\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }E}{E_{\mathrm{rot}}}\frac{\mathrm{\Delta }\mathrm{\Omega }}{\mathrm{\Omega }}`$ which is much smaller than the above even for the giant glitches of the Vela pulsar. We note however that the excitation of the oscillation modes is a separate process taking place in the liquid core of the star, and need not be energetically comparable to the energy transfer/dissipation involved in a glitch. Furthermore, as indicated earlier, one should note that the distinction between modes and the equilibrium star, as in Eq. 1, is only a mathematical convenience and no real transfer of angular momentum takes place from one component into another. Hence the associated energy of the modes need not have any definite relation to that of the glitch process which is accompanied by a real transfer of angular momentum between different components of the star. Unfortunately, the existing theory does not provide any prescription for determining the initial amplitude of the excited modes, for any assumed cause of it, say, at a glitch.

We are thankful to the referee for the valuable comments and criticisms which helped to improve the manuscript. A helpful correspondence from K. D. Kokkotas is also gratefully acknowledged. VR acknowledges the support of a Royal Society grant and thanks the Portsmouth Relativity and Cosmology Group for hospitality.   

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Figure Captions:   

Fig. 1a- The post-glitch time evolution of the absolute value of the fractional change in the spin frequency of a pulsar, caused by its loss of angular momentum due to gravitational waves driven by the r-modes that are assumed to be excited at the glitch epoch, $`t=0`$, with an initial amplitude of $`\alpha _0=0.04`$. The two curves correspond to assumed values of $`T_9=0.3`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_3=0.19`$, for the Crab (thick line), and $`T_9=0.2`$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }_3=0.07`$, for the Vela (thin line). Note that the curve for Vela represents the results after being multiplied by a factor of $`10^3`$.

Fig. 1b- Time evolution of the fractional change in the spin-down rate of a pulsar, caused by its loss of angular momentum due to the excitation of r-modes at $`t=0`$. A value of $`\dot{\mathrm{\Omega }}=2.4\times 10^9`$rad s<sup>-2</sup>, and other parameter values same as in Fig. 1a for the Crab have been assumed.

Fig. 2a- The dependence of the total damping timescale of r-modes on the internal temperature of a neutron star. Parameter values same as for the Crab in Fig. 1a have been assumed.

Fig. 2b- The dependence of the quantity $`\frac{\tau _\mathrm{v}}{|\tau _{\mathrm{gr}}|}`$, which is a measure of the net post-glitch decrease in the rotation frequency, on the rotation frequency of a neutron star. The two curves are to show the dependence on the temperature, where $`T_9=0.3`$ (bare line) and $`T_9=0.2`$ (dotted line) have been used.