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Monash Astro Seminars
3pm, Tuesday 01 September 2009; Maths, Rm. 345
Ed Brown
"Journey to the core of a neutron star"
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Neutron stars are composed of the densest observable matter in nature and occupy the intellectual frontier between astrophysics and nuclear physics. Within the next decade, current and planned nuclear experiments on heavy nuclei, X-ray observations, and, perhaps, gravity wave observations of neutron stars will be exploring the nature of dense matter from complimentary approaches. Many observed neutron stars accrete hydrogen- and helium-rich matter from a companion. During the slow compression to nuclear density the accreted matter is transmuted from being proton-rich to being proton-poor. These reactions affect many observable phenomena - from energetic explosions on the neutron star's surface to the recently detected thermal relaxation of the surface layers - that in turn inform us about the nature of the deep interior of the neutron star. In this talk, I shall describe the journey of matter that is accreted onto a neutron star and highlight some recent exciting discoveries that inform us about the physics of the dense matter of the neutron star's crust and core.
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Please email all enquiries to daniel.price@sci.monash.edu.au or rosemary.mardling@sci.monash.edu.au
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