The Crustal Moment-of-Inertia Fraction and the Minimum Reservoir Pulsar Glitches Require

Whether the crust of a neutron star alone can supply the angular momentum released in pulsar glitches reduces, at the first step, to one number: the fraction of the total moment of inertia that resides in the crust. This study evaluates the Lattimer-Prakash expression for that fraction across a stated mass-radius sequence with a transition pressure of 0.45 MeV per cubic femtometre. The fraction is 8.69 per cent at 1.0 solar masses, 4.40 per cent for a canonical 1.4 solar-mass star, and 1.07 per cent at 2.1 solar masses. The long-standing requirement from the Vela pulsar's glitch activity, 1.4 per cent of the total moment of inertia in a decoupled reservoir when entrainment is neglected, is met by the crust alone up to 1.8 solar masses on this sequence, and the canonical star exceeds it by a factor of 3.14. Entrainment, treated in a companion analysis, tightens the requirement severalfold and is where the crust-only picture comes under genuine pressure. This study is simulated and computed from stated assumptions; it is not a measurement.