Nonpurely transverse Magnus force in superconducting neutron stars

The force acting on a proton vortex in extreme type-II superconducting neutron star matter is studied in the limit of vanishing temperature. A detailed analysis is presented on how momentum is transferred from length scales on the order of the London penetration depth to the vortex core. To examine the momentum flux, expressions for proton and electron currents are derived for arbitrary distances from the vortex line. It is shown that, in the regime of a large electron mean free path, the only force acting directly on the vortex core is the Magnus force. Notably, the correction to the proton current near the vortex core generates a component of the Magnus force aligned with the incident current measured far from the vortex. This contribution, responsible for longitudinal force, is usually overlooked in the literature. The results obtained in this work for a relatively simple problem concerning the force on a vortex in cold matter of neutron stars may also be relevant to other superconducting systems.