Relativistic models for superconducting-superfluid mixtures

The material below the crust of a neutron star is understood to be describable in terms of three principal independently moving constituents, identifiable as neutrons, protons, and electrons, of which the first two are believed to form mutually coupled bosonic condensates. The large scale comportment of such a system will be that of a positively charged superconducting superfluid in a negatively charged "normal" fluid background. As a contribution to the development of the theory of such a system, the present work shows how, subject to neglect of dissipative effects, it is possible to set up an elegant category of simplified but fully relativistic three-constituent superconducting superfluid models whose purpose is to provide realistic approximations for cases in which a strictly conservative treatment is sufficient. A "mesoscopic" model, describing the fluid between the vortices, is constructed, as well as a "macroscopic" model taking into account the average effect of quantised vortices. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.