This self-contained introduction to compact star physics explains important concepts from areas such as general relativity, thermodynamics, statistical mechanics, and nuclear physics. Containing many tested exercises, and written by an international expert in the research field, the book provides important insights on the basic concepts of compact stars, discusses white dwarfs, neutron stars, quark stars and exotic compact stars. Included are sections on astrophysical observations of compact stars, and present and future terrestrial experiments related to compact stars physics, as the study of exotic nuclei and relativistic heavy-ion collisions. Major developments in the field such as the discovery of massive neutron stars, and a discussion of the recent gravitational wave measurement of a neutron star merger are also presented. This book is ideal for graduate students and researchers working on the physics of compact stars, general relativity and nuclear physics.
A whole decades research collated, organised and synthesised into one single book! Following a 60-page review of the seminal treatises of Misner, Thorne, Wheeler and Weinberg on general relativity, Glendenning goes on to explore the internal structure of compact stars, white dwarfs, neutron stars, hybrids, strange quark stars, both the counterparts of neutron stars as well as of dwarfs. This is a self-contained treatment and will be of interest to graduate students in physics and astrophysics as well as others entering the field.
This self-contained textbook brings together many different branches of physics--e.g. nuclear physics, solid state physics, particle physics, hydrodynamics, relativity--to analyze compact objects. The latest astronomical data is assessed. Over 250 exercises.
Modern comprehensive introduction and overview of the physics of White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars and Black Holes, including all relevant observations. Contains a basic introduction to General Relativity, including the modern 3+1 split of spacetime and of Einstein’s equations. The split is used for the first time to derive the structure equations for rapidly rotating neutron stars and Black Holes. Detailed discussions and derivations of current theoretical results. In particular also the most recent equations of state for neutron star matter are explained. Topics , such as colour superconductivity are discussed and used for modelling. A book for graduate students and researchers. Contains exercises and some solutions.
There are reasons to believe the 21st century will be the best ever for astrophysics: the James Webb Space Telescope will extend nearly twenty times the present observational limit of visible light; neutrino massiveness opens a new window for exploration on dark energy and dark matter physics and is expected to provide insights into the fate of the Universe; the Higgs boson may allow for an understanding of the weakness of gravity; gravitational waves produced at the birth of the Universe and by compact stellar objects (supermassive black holes, black hole/neutron star mergers, gamma-ray bursts, white dwarf inspirals) have unveiled a new area of astronomy. Against this background, compact stars, the theme of this volume, present unique astrophysical laboratories for probing the fabric of space-time and the building blocks of matter and their interactions at physical regimes not attainable in terrestrial laboratories.
X-ray astronomy is the prime available window on astrophysical compact objects: black holes, neutron stars and white dwarfs. In this book, prominent experts provide a comprehensive overview of the observations and astrophysics of these objects. This is a valuable reference for graduate students and active researchers.
A very attractive feature of the theory of general relativity is that it is a perfectexampleofa“falsi?able”theory:notunableparameterispresentinthe theory and therefore even a single experiment incompatible with a prediction of the theory would immediately lead to its inevitable rejection, at least in the physical regime of application of the aforementioned experiment. This fact provides additional scienti?c value to one of the boldest and most fascinating achievements of the human intellect ever, and motivates a wealth of e?orts in designing and implementing tests aimed at the falsi?cation of the theory. The ?rst historical test on the theory has been the de?ection of light gr- ing the solar surface (Eddington 1919): the compatibility of the theory with this ?rst experiment together with its ability to explain the magnitude of the perihelion advance of Mercury contributed strongly to boost acceptance and worldwideknowledge.However,technologicallimitations preventedphysicists from setting up more constraining tests for several decades after the formu- tion of the theory. In fact, a relevant problem with experimental general r- ativity is that the predicted deviations from the Newtonian theory of gravity areverysmallwhentheexperimentsarecarriedoutinterrestriallaboratories.
This book summarizes the recent progress in the physics and astrophysics of neutron stars and, most importantly, it identifies and develops effective strategies to explore, both theoretically and observationally, the many remaining open questions in the field. Because of its significance in the solution of many fundamental questions in nuclear physics, astrophysics and gravitational physics, the study of neutron stars has seen enormous progress over the last years and has been very successful in improving our understanding in these fascinating compact objects. The book addresses a wide spectrum of readers, from students to senior researchers. Thirteen chapters written by internationally renowned experts offer a thorough overview of the various facets of this interdisciplinary science, from neutron star formation in supernovae, pulsars, equations of state super dense matter, gravitational wave emission, to alternative theories of gravity. The book was initiated by the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Action MP1304 “Exploring fundamental physics with compact stars” (NewCompStar).
Neutron stars represent natural laboratories where all kinds of processes and reactions take place in unusual and extremely dense matter. Neutron stars, being the compact objects of close attention for physicists and astronomers, are the sources of strictly periodic pulsed radiation. Every neutron star has its own unique characteristics of pulse frequency, radiation spectrum and intensity, but there are also the glitches and pauses that occur suddenly. All of this together raises many questions. For instance, what is the physics concerning these phenomena in general, and what changes can emerge in the properties of matter under extreme conditions specific to neutron stars? Investigation of some of these issues is one of the aims of this book, which is dedicated to the physics of neutron stars, in particular the influence of external fields and rotation on the properties of neutron stars, and reactions and transition of matter in its envelopes and depth. In this regard, the authors review the models of neutron stars involving not only local charge neutrality cases, but also the most recent models fulfilling global charge neutrality. The weak interactions are taken into account by requiring the β stability of the system. The strong interactions, processes and reactions are described on the basis of the methods of few-body and cluster physics in a wide range of densities. Both electromagnetic and gravitational interactions are accounted for when constructing the equation of the neutron star matter and the equilibrium structure of the system. The Einstein field equations are solved for static and rotating neutron stars equilibrium configurations. Basic parameters of neutron stars such as mass-radius relations, mass-central density relation and so on are calculated by fulfilling stability criteria required for stable neutron star configurations. The relativistic quadrupole moment takes into account the deviations due to rotation and deformation. In this respect, the class of axisymmetric static and stationary quadrupolar metrics, which satisfy Einsteins equations in empty space and in the presence of matter represented by a perfect fluid, is considered. The physical conditions that must be satisfied for a particular spacetime metric to describe the gravitational field of compact stars are formulated. It is also important to develop powerful tools for investigating the processes in nuclear cluster studies in association with stellar environment, including neutron stars. These tools are different variants of microscopic cluster models, which allow one to study and to predict the dynamics of numerous processes and nuclear reactions taking place at various objects in our Universe. The effects of density oscillation in some layers of neutron star envelopes are investigated in the frame of Faddeev equations in the case of neutron resonances that appear in crystalline nuclei structures. The authors formulate new experiments of thermal neutron scattering on piezo crystalline targets to imitate oscillation effects in neutron star envelopes. The main purpose of this book is to investigate processes, phenomena and reactions in neutron star physics with fundamental interactions described in a self-consistent manner to highlight some interesting effects using few-body and other analytical/numerical methods.
