Magnetar Dynamics and Gravitational Waves

We are going to present new results related to the dynamics and the associated instabilities of strong magnetic fields in neutron stars. The results are the first of their kind in general relativistic magneto-hydrodynamics (GR-MHD). We verify and extend earlier Newtonian results produced using either perturbation theory or Newtonian MHD codes. Finally, we will present estimations of the possibility that the giant flares observed in magnetars can be associated with significant emission of detectable gravitational waves.