The physics and forensics of neutron star explosions

by Anna Watts (Amsterdam U.)

Wednesday 10 Dec 2014, 14:30 → 15:30 Europe/Berlin

build. 2a, SR 2 (DESY Hamburg)

Neutron stars are the densest objects in the Universe, attaining physical conditions that cannot be replicated on Earth. The nature of matter at such extreme densities is one of the great unsolved problems in modern science, and this makes neutron stars unparalleled laboratories for nuclear physics and QCD. Astronomers have several techniques at their disposal to study neutron star composition, but some of the most promising involve using the magnetic and thermonuclear explosions that periodically rock many neutron stars. I will introduce these explosive phenomena, and explain how we can sift through the photonic debris to find clues to the underpinning dense matter physics.