Bibcode
Paerels, F.; Méndez, M.; Agueros, M.; Baring, M.; Barret, D.; Bhattacharyya, S.; Cackett, E.; Cottam, J.; Diaz Trigo, M.; Fox, D.; Garcia, M.; Gotthelf, E.; Hermsen, W.; Ho, W.; Hurley, K.; Konker, P.; Juett, A.; Kaaret, P.; Kargaltsev, O.; Lattimer, J.; Matt, G.; Özel, F.; Pavlov, G.; Rutledge, R.; Smith, R.; Stella, L.; Strohmayer, T.; Tananbaum, H.; Uttley, P.; van Kerkwijk, M.; Weisskopf, M.; Zane, S.
Bibliographical reference
Astro2010: The Astronomy and Astrophysics Decadal Survey, Science White Papers, no. 230
Advertised on:
0
2009
Citations
12
Refereed citations
7
Description
The cores of neutron stars harbor the highest matter densities known to
occur in nature, up to several times the densities in atomic nuclei.
Similarly, magnetic field strengths can exceed the strongest fields
generated in terrestrial laboratories by ten orders of magnitude.
Hyperon-dominated matter, deconfined quark matter, superfluidity, even
superconductivity are predicted in neutron stars. Similarly, quantum
electrodynamics predicts that in strong magnetic fields the vacuum
becomes birefringent. The properties of matter under such conditions is
governed by Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) and Quantum Electrodynamics
(QED), and the close study of the properties of neutron stars offers the
unique opportunity to test and explore the richness of QCD and QED in a
regime that is utterly beyond the reach of terrestrial experiments.
Experimentally, this is almost virgin territory.