There is, I think, something ethereal about i —the square root of minus one. I remember first hearing about it at school. It seemed an odd beast at that time—an intruder hovering on the edge of reality.

Usually familiarity dulls this sense of the bizarre, but in the case of i it was the reverse: over the years the sense of its surreal nature intensified. It seemed that it was impossible to write mathematics that described the real world in …

I and i

다중혈관 관상동맥 환자에서 y-문합을 이용하여 양쪽 내흉동맥만을 사용한 우회술의 조기 성적

[신간의 별자리x] 우리/미술, 그리고 ‘슬픔의 박물관’

Neutron stars comprise the densest form of matter known to exist in our Universe, but their composition and properties are uncertain. Measurements of their masses and radii can constrain theoretical predictions of their composition, but so far it has not been possible to rule out many predictions of 'exotic' non-nucleonic components. Here, radio timing observations of the binary millisecond pulsar J1614-2230 are presented, allowing almost all currently proposed hyperon or boson condensate equations of state to be ruled out.

A two-solar-mass neutron star measured using Shapiro delay

On 17 August 2017, the LIGO and Virgo observatories made the first direct detection of gravitational waves from the coalescence of a neutron star binary system. The detection of this gravitational-wave signal, GW170817, offers a novel opportunity to directly probe the properties of matter at the extreme conditions found in the interior of these stars. The initial, minimal-assumption analysis of the LIGO and Virgo data placed constraints on the tidal effects of the coalescing bodies, which were then translated to constraints on neutron star radii. Here, we expand upon previous analyses by working under the hypothesis that both bodies were neutron stars that are described by the same equation of state and have spins within the range observed in Galactic binary neutron stars. Our analysis employs two methods: the use of equation-of-state-insensitive relations between various macroscopic properties of the neutron stars and the use of an efficient parametrization of the defining function pðρÞ of the equation of state itself. From the LIGO and Virgo data alone and the first method, we measure the two neutron star radii as R1 ¼ 10.8 þ2.0 −1.7 km for the heavier star and R2 ¼ 10.7 þ2.1 −1.5 km for the lighter star at the 90% credible level. If we additionally require that the equation of state supports neutron stars with masses larger than 1.97 M⊙ as required from electromagnetic observations and employ the equation-of-state parametrization, we further constrain R1 ¼ 11.9 þ1.4 −1.4 km and R2 ¼ 11.9 þ1.4 −1.4 km at the 90% credible level. Finally, we obtain constraints on pðρÞ at supranuclear densities, with pressure at twice nuclear saturation density measured at 3.5 þ2.7 −1.7 × 1034 dyn cm−2 at the 90% level.

GW170817: Measurements of Neutron Star Radii and Equation of State.

The symmetry energy contribution to the nuclear equation of state impacts various phenomena in nuclear astrophysics, nuclear structure, and nuclear reactions. Its determination is a key objective of contemporary nuclear physics, with consequences for the understanding of dense matter within neutron stars. We examine the results of laboratory experiments that have provided initial constraints on the nuclear symmetry energy and on its density dependence at and somewhat below normal nuclear matter density. Even though some of these constraints have been derived from properties of nuclei while others have been derived from the nuclear response to electroweak and hadronic probes, within experimental uncertainties-they are consistent with each other. We also examine the most frequently used theoretical models that predict the symmetry energy and its slope parameter. By comparing existing constraints on the symmetry pressure to theories, we demonstrate how contributions of three-body forces, which are essential ingredients in neutron matter models, can be determined.

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Constraints on the symmetry energy and neutron skins from experiments and theory

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Topical issue on nuclear symmetry energy

In this work we review the role of hyperons on the properties of neutron and proto-neutron stars. In particular, we revise the so-called “hyperon puzzle”, go over some of the solutions proposed to tackle it, and discuss the implications that the recent measurements of unusually high neutron star masses have on our present knowledge of hypernuclear physics. We re-examine also the role of hyperons on the cooling properties of newly born neutron stars and on the so-called r-mode instability.

Do hyperons exist in the interior of neutron stars

We study the consequences of the hadron-quark deconfinement phase transition in stellar compact objects when finite-size effects between the deconfined quark phase and the hadronic phase are taken into account. We show that above a threshold value of the central pressure (gravitational mass) a neutron star is metastable to the decay (conversion) to a hybrid neutron star or to a strange star. The mean lifetime of the metastable configuration dramatically depends on the value of the stellar central pressure. We explore the consequences of the metastability of massive neutron stars and of the existence of stable compact quark stars (hybrid neutron stars or strange stars) on the concept of the limiting mass of compact stars. We discuss the implications of our scenario for the interpretation of the stellar mass and radius extracted from the spectra of several X-ray compact sources. Finally, we show that our scenario implies, as a natural consequence, a two-step process that is able to explain the inferred delayed connection between supernova explosions and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), giving also the correct energy to power GRBs.

Quark Deconfinement and Implications for the Radius and the Limiting Mass of Compact Stars

We perform a systematic analysis of the density dependence of nuclear symmetry energy within the microscopic Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (BHF) approach using the realistic Argonne V18 nucleon-nucleon potential plus a phenomenological three-body force of Urbana type. Our results are compared thoroughly with those arising from several Skyrme and relativistic effective models. The values of the parameters characterizing the BHF equation of state of isospin asymmetric nuclear matter fall within the trends predicted by those models and are compatible with recent constraints coming from heavy ion collisions, giant monopole resonances, or isobaric analog states. In particular we find a value of the slope parameter L=66.5 MeV, compatible with recent experimental constraints from isospin diffusion, L=88±25 MeV. The correlation between the neutron skin thickness of neutron-rich isotopes and the slope L and curvature Ksym parameters of the symmetry energy is studied. Our BHF results are in very good agreement with the correlations already predicted by other authors using nonrelativistic and relativistic effective models. The correlations of these two parameters and the neutron skin thickness with the transition density from nonuniform to β-stable matter in neutron stars are also analyzed. Our results confirm that there is an inverse correlation between the neutron skin thickness and the transition density.

Isaac Vidaña

Papers

Constraints on the symmetry energy and neutron skins from experiments and theory

Topical issue on nuclear symmetry energy

Do hyperons exist in the interior of neutron stars

Quark Deconfinement and Implications for the Radius and the Limiting Mass of Compact Stars

Density dependence of the nuclear symmetry energy: A microscopic perspective