6 research outputs found
Neutron star interiors and the equation of state of ultra-dense matter
There has been much recent progress in our understanding of quark matter,
culminating in the discovery that if such matter exists in the cores of neutron
stars it ought to be in a color superconducting state. This paper explores the
impact of superconducting quark matter on the properties (e.g., masses, radii,
surface gravity, photon emission) of compact stars.Comment: 3 pages, 4 figures; Paper presented at the Int. Conf. on Quark
Confinement and the Hadron Spectrum VII, Ponta Delgada, Acores, 2-7 September
2006; to be published by AI
Is a soft nuclear equation of state extracted from heavy-ion data incompatible with pulsar data?
We discuss the recent constraints on the nuclear equation of state from
pulsar mass measurements and from subthreshold production of kaons in heavy-ion
collisions. While recent pulsar data points towards a hard equation of state,
the analysis of the heavy-ion data allows only for soft equations of state. We
resolve the apparent contradiction by considering the different density regimes
probed. We argue that future measurements of global properties of low-mass
pulsars can serve as an excellent cross-check to heavy-ion data.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, contribution to the proceedings of the
international conference on 'Nuclear Physics in Astrophysics III', Dresden,
Germany, March 26-31, 2007, minor corrections to match published version, JPG
in pres
Pulsars as Astrophysical Laboratories for Nuclear and Particle Physics
A forefront area of research concerns the exploration of the properties of
hadronic matter under extreme conditions of temperature and density, and the
determination of the equation of state--the relation between pressure,
temperature and density--of such matter. Experimentally, relativistic heavy-ion
collision experiments enable physicists to cast a brief glance at hot and
ultra-dense matter for times as little as about seconds.
Complementary to this, the matter that exists in the cores of neutron stars,
observed as radio pulsars, X-ray pulsars, and magnetars, is at low temperatures
but compressed permanently to ultra-high densities that may be more than an
order of magnitude higher than the density of atomic nuclei. This makes pulsars
superb astrophysical laboratories for medium and high-energy nuclear physics,
as discussed in this paper.Comment: 10 pages, 13 figures; Paper presented at the International School Of
Nuclear Physics, 28th Course: Radioactive Beams, Nuclear Dynamics and
Astrophysics, Erice-Sicily, 16-24 September 2006; to be published in Prog.
Part. Nucl. Phy