SXS Collaboration's video: Dynamically Unstable Spinning Neutron Star 2016 Edition

Very rapidly spinning young neutron stars (with spin periods of or less than about one millisecond) can become dynamically unstable to a so-called "bar-mode" instability. This instability destroys the rotational symmetry of the neutron star and deforms it into bar-like shape. If the instability is strong, then the bar leads to the shedding of mass and angular momentum. Then the neutron star relaxes back to nearly axisymmetric shape. This simulation was performed by Christian Ott at the California Institute of Technology. This work was carried out as part of the Simulating eXtreme Spacetimes (SXS) collaboration. http://www.black-holes.org and used the NSF/NCSA Blue Waters Petascale Supercomputer.